308 new ASPs reject CP’s blanket handshake in Uyo

Posted by admin Latest Politics, Nigerian Police Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

It is no longer news that Akwa Ibom State Police Command broke record last Tuesday when it decorated a total of 308 Assistant Superintendents of Police (ASPs) recently promoted from the legion of inspectors whose progress in the force had been stagnated for years.

What could now be news is that the new officers almost caused a mild mutiny against the police commissioner, Mr. Felix Uyanna, after he and his deputy, Mr. Gabriel Ochong, had decorated 20 officers among them, and had told the rest that they could wear their rank for him to just give them a mass blessing.
“No!” the officers shouted. They wanted the CP’s handshake even if they would not have the privilege of being personally decorated by him.

The officers had their way, forcing the CP to allow them to march into the Officers’ Mess main hall to shake hands with him while he spoke words of encouragement and advice to them.
But it was also the turn of the commissioner of police to have his way during the initiation of the officers into Officers Mess Club. Each of them was told to either drink at a go, the mixed drinks poured into their classes or get fined with cartons of drinks.

Even those who carried the “born again” mien had no choice but to drink the concoction said to contain all sort of drinks. Only Muslims among them were exempted because of the Ramadan fast. But Ochong said after the fasting, they would be initiated else they would not be admitted into the Mess.

Before then the CP had admonished the new ASPs to prepare for their examinations to get a second star and be confirmed ASPs in order to move on the ladder of hierarchy, warning that their inability to pass two consecutive promotion examinations might lead to their untimely retirement with the present rank they occupy.

He enjoined them to continue to live by good example to their junior colleagues. “Like Caesar’s wife, you should live above reproach.”
Commenting on the security situation in the state later, Uyanna said violent crimes in the state were experiencing a decline, especially with the ban on commercial motorcycles even as he said armed robbers on bikes had relocated from Uyo to Eket and other towns in the state.

He, however, appealed to the people to co-operate with the police in the fight against crime, especially kidnapping. He advised relations of kidnap victims not to be in a hurry to pay ransom to free their relatives as such would continue to encourage the kidnappers.
“So many people are taking to kidnapping because it is a low-risk but high-paying crime.You don’t need a gun to kidnap a toddler or a grand mother but such act can fetch the hoodlums millions of naira.”

He said the people should, however, co-operate with the police as they work toward the release of kidnap victims without spending any money; adding that the police recently secured the release of the wife of the former civilian governor of the state, Mrs Imo Isemin, only three hours after she was kidnapped because the police got timely information and co-operation of the people.
The CP, however, said with the ban on commercial motorcycles in the state capital, crime rate had gone down, but said the police would henceforth shift their attention to other towns in the state, especially Eket, where the criminals, who use motorcycles for their operation seem to have relocated.

-Sunwp_posts