BY KINGSLEY OMONOBI, ABUJA
Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Onyeabor Azubuike Ihejirika yesterday visited force headquarters, Abuja where he and the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim.
In what appeared as the first real attempt to heal the wounds of embarrassing confrontations between personnel of the Nigeria Police force and the Nigeria Army, as well as reassure personnel of both services that their relationship remained cordial, the
duo addressed a joint briefing to douse the tension generated by Tuesday’s killing of the DPO and DCO of the Badagry Police Station.
At the briefing, both the IG and the COAS regretted the killings of both the Police officers and the Army personnel and announced that they had both agreed to the setting up of a joint investigation panel to carrying out an unbiased investigation into the causes of the killings.
Apparently standing their ground that the Nigeria Army was not responsible for the death of the Police officers, the Chief of Army Staff said, “the incident of the last few days are quite unfortunate and a tragic loss to the nation. We therefore consider it necessary to condole one another. We also want to seize this opportunity to inform you of an arrangement for a joint investigation of the matter.”
“The issue is of so much importance to us that we want to get to the root. It will be a detailed investigation and nothing will be hidden and I am sure the press will hear about it. I therefore call on the press to exercise restraint in their reportage of the events.”
“The relationship between the leadership of the services have been very cordial as the IG said, and in fact, since I assumed office as the Army chief, we (Army) have trained over 2, 000 Police officers in various specialties including anti-terrorism, intelligence etc. As I speak to you, I want to say that we have about 167 officers of the Nigeria Police and their families living in our barracks in Badagry and they have been living in peace and harmony”.
On his part, Mr. Hafiz Ringim said, “This is the first time the Force Headquarters is witnessing a serving Chief of Army Staff visiting us to commiserate over the death of Police personnel. I think we are making history with this event. Before going further, let me say that the relationship between me and other service chiefs during our meetings on security issues, have always been very cordial and friendly because we realize we are working together to make the nation secure and peaceful”.
“In this regard, I think Mr. President has made the right choice of officers for the position of service chiefs and the people of Nigeria are indeed blessed to have this caliber of officers at the helm of security agencies”.
“We are all aware of what happened in Badagry and there is no need to repeat it here. We (Army Chief) and I are using this occasion to condole one another because the Army lost its personnel and we lost ours. What is important is that for the first time ever, the IG and the COAS, we have jointly agreed to sit down and jointly investigate and get to the bottom of this matter”.
“A lot as been said and written in the media about this incident. Some of them outrageous, some unbelievable, some sensational. But the fact is that a joint investigation has been agreed and there will be no hold barred. We want to get to the root of the matter”.
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