Tina Amanda
The Commissioner of Police Rivers State, Friday Eboka, says the Command will not hesitate to take appropriate action against the DPO of Akpajo Police Station, Emmanuel Ifeanyi, who allegedly assaulted a FIDA member alongside a Social Welfare officer and a complainant.
CP Eboka condemned the DPO’s actions when the executive members of FIDA Rivers led by its Chairperson, Adata Bio-Briggs, visited his office at the Police Headquarters Moscow Road, Port Harcourt, to register their displeasure on the inhumane act exhibited by the Officer with respect to a newborn baby found abandoned in a Church at Akpajo, Eleme.
The Commissioner of Police, however, apologised to FIDA While assuring them that such an act will not re-occur again amongst his officers as the DPO in question will be investigated and dealt with.
The CP noted that it is wrong to take any child brought into a Police Station to private motherless baby homes, stating that oftentimes no proper records is kept for such children and they could be easily used for ritual purposes.
“I want to first of all register my apology about the Police officer’s behaviour because they are all my children, we will issue him a query. Those policemen who do good are doing good to the Command and those who do bad will be punished in their own ways.
“The moment I got your call on the day of the incident, I immediately called the DPO and instructed him to take the baby to the appropriate place which he did that day. He told me the Complainant was insisting on going home with the child, and that she later asked him how much she will pay him.
“I told him not to do such a thing but hand the baby over to the state government for proper record. It is appropriate to follow the normal procedure the moment such a child leaves your office to avoid tomorrow being called upon to explain what happened to the child.
“Your petition is before me, we will take appropriate action against him. I want to assure you that it will not happen again in any other Police Division, I apologize once again on behalf of my officers
On her part, Chairperson FIDA Rivers Adata Bio-Briggs, thanked CP Friday Eboka for his swift intervention when a call was put across to him for the release of their member and the two others detained by the DPO Akpajo, adding that this is the first time the organization is experiencing such since they started working in collaboration with the police.
“Thank you, Sir, we are happy for your response and we are sure going forward that this kind of incident will not occur again because Police have been our backbone in the fight against child trafficking, abuse and several other crimes.
“There has been lot of incidence of missing children and any complaints we get, our first point of call is the police station, we have never experienced this kind of action from any officer. We are happy that you have responded and decided to investigate the DPO and take proper actions”.
