The Commissioner of Police in charge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Benneth Igweh has assured the people of Bwari Area Council especially students and staff of Veritas University, Bwari-Abuja indicated that he has massively deployed men and materials in the troubled area council that “no criminal element can threaten the people of the area again”.
He spoke against the backdrop of recent upsurge in bandits attacks leading to abductions of many persons that led to apprehension among the people of Bwari Area Council especially students and staff of Veritas University, Bwari-Abuja.
The Commissioner of police gave the assurance when the Vice Chancellor of the University paid a courtesy Visit on him in his office in Abuja.
A statement issued by head, corporate affairs and Communications of the university, Ben Agande indicated that Bwari Area council had been in the news in the last two months as result of activities of kidnappers. Five daughters from one family were kidnapped from the area last December with one of the daughters killed by the kidnappers when her parents could not raise the ransom money on time.
The statement quoted the Commissioner of Police while speaking with the Vice Chancellor of Veritas University, to have stated that ugly incidence of the recent past will never repeat itself again as long as he remains the commissioner of police in the FCT.
“I owe Veritas University protection and we will provide that. There is no other place that we have done massive deployment like we have done in Bwari because of the uniqueness of that place. Apart from bordering Kaduna and Niger states, there are about four intuitions of higher learning there and a federal government secondary school. But I can assure you that there is no force that can enter Bwari and threaten the people again” he said.
As part of the deployment of men and materials in the Bwari axis, the Commissioner of police said the FCT police command will create a base in Ushafa that will support the deployment in Bwari.
“I am happy to announce that the people that ran away from their ancestral homes in Bwari villages and those that left Bwari town have returned to Bwari now. We are not interested in fantasies. We are doing real policing. Tell your staff and students that they are in safe hands” the police boss said.
He commended the Vice Chancellor of Veritas University for assisting the Bwari Divisional Police Office and encourage him to do more.
Earlier in his speech, the Vice Chancellor of Veritas University, Rev. Fr Professor Hyacinth Ichoku thanked the commissioner of Police for the massive deployment of men and materials around the Veritas University.
He enjoined the Commissioner of police to look into vast areas and communities around the university that do not have police presence with a view to creating police station that would serve as a buffer between the communities in Bwari and the forests in Kaduna state.
The Vice Chancellor pledged the University’s continued logistics support to the police and other security agencies in Bwari, noting that “it is better to support the police to do their job of protecting us than paying ransom to kidnappers”