26th April, 2012
Mr. Emmanuel Ayeni, the Plateau Commissioner of Police, has blamed Tuesday’s bomb explosion at a football viewing centre in Tudun Wada, Jos on “nonchalant attitude of members of the public.”
Ayeni, while briefing newsmen on Wednesday in Jos over the explosion, said that the police were not receiving enough cooperation from the people.
“The issue of policing is a holistic affair. People are nonchalant and we are not receiving commensurate cooperation from members of the public; it’s very disgusting.
“We have said it times without number that people should volunteer information to us. These bombers live among the people, they are not ghosts, but the people are not security-conscious,” Ayeni said.
The police boss appealed to members of the public to volunteer information to the police about the hideouts, sources of explosives and factories of bombers so as to be proactive.
Ayeni said that he had given his phone number and 20 other strategic phone numbers to media houses and members of the public where they should direct security information.
“But up till now, there has not been any response from anybody. It is not good enough and it is not helping matters.
“We can’t do it alone; all of us have to partner. It is not the business of security agencies alone,” the commissioner said.
He explained that he had visited all the nooks and crannies of Plateau to sensitise members of the public on the need to collaborate with the police, but expressed frustration over the “uncooperative attitudes” of the people.
Ayeni said, however, that everywhere was calm and that the police would continue to be proactive to safeguard lives and property in the state.
The police officer said that the victim of the bomb blast, who died had not been identified.
He said that the anti-bomb squad had obtained evidential materials for analysis, while the state CID had commenced investigation.
On insinuations by some witnesses that the victim who died actually detonated the bombs, Ayeni explained that it was a time-bomb.
He expressed reservations at the possibility of a bomber detonating a bomb to also kill himself.
Meanwhile, the military Special Task Force (STF) maintaining security in the state has claimed that nobody sustained injuries from the blast, but that “three persons sustained injuries following a stampede.”
A statement by STF spokesman, Capt. Mdahyelya Markus, on Wednesday in Jos, accused youths in the area of attempting to barricade roads in the area after the explosion before they were dispersed by STF troops.
Markus warned members of the public against taking the laws into their hands during bomb explosions, adding that such would not be tolerated by the security agencies.