Police officers and their families residing in the ‘B’ Police Barracks along the Benin-Onitsha expressway in Asaba, Delta State have raised the alarm of incessant robbery attacks on them in recent times.
The residents of the barracks who spoke to The Sun on condition of anonymity, said the robbery suspects have taken advantage of the prevailing dakrness in the barracks to unleash series of attacks on them. The barracks was thrown into darkness two months ago after yet-to-be-identified persons vandalized the transformer serving the barracks and who also made away with the cables.
”Robbers have been coming here to dispossess us of our property. We have lost power generating sets, handsets laptops and personal effects to the dreaded thieves. There is uncleared vegetation at the other side of the barrack, through which they gain access to the barrack. They have been tormenting us lately. They come through the bush, and because there is no power supply, everywhere is always dark, so we cannot see them coming in.” a resident said
Another resident who also spoke on condition of anonimity, said they have contributed N3,000 each to fix the vandalized transformer, adding that since the donation was made over a month ago, nothing has changed.
“Our lives are under serious threat as a result of darkness which the hoodlums are taking advantage of. We are very worried at the moment. We have not heard anything since we contributed money to fix the vandalized transformer,” the source disclosed.
Another resident of the barrack however believes that the robbery attacks might be an orchestration of the children of some of the police officers.
“The situation is terrible but there are some children who are above 18 years that are still around. This is not proper. I suspect that the pockets of robberies we are experiencing are orchestrated by these young residents. So we are appealing to the management of the state police command to investigate this matter and save us from the hands of these tormentors,” the resident said
When contacted, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Adeyinka Adeleke, admitted that the barrack has been in darkness due to the vandalized transformer, but denied claims that robbery attacks has been on the increase in the barracks.
