BY Our Correspondent
A civil society group, the League of Igbo Youth Lawyers (LIYOLAW) has bemoaned statements reportedly made In Oko, Anambra State, by the state police commissioner CP Ikioye Orutugu in the aftermath of security breaches in the town which, on June 19, 2025, left some people dead and others injured or missing.
The CP who held a meeting with representatives of the town’s leadership, the student union government of the Federal Polytechnic in the town and other stake holders, allegedly threatened to shut down the federal institution in the town if incidents of insecurity continued, and to send the police to deal with the people who he blamed for the disturbances.
In a communique issued by the group Saturday June 21, 2025, signed by its national secretary, Barr Obinnaya Asiegbu and made available to the press, the group wondered how the police CP under whose area of operation serious security lapses had occurred and which led to loss of lives of innocent Nigerians, felt justified to employ blame tactics on a terrorized community even when investigations into the tragedy were supposed to be ongoing.
The Communique read in part “This group views with dismay comments of blame and threat levied against the beleaguered community of Oko in Abambra State by CP Ikioye Orutugu during his recent visit to the town on the heels of the current bloody attacks by gunmen on innocent Nigerians living in the community. We note that investigations into the tragic attacks are supposed to be ongoing at the time of the CPs visit, therefore to put the blame on the door of the community or the students was most unworthy”.
In a subsequent telephone conversation with the executive director of the group, Barr Stanley Okafor, the lawyer told reporters that he was still searching the law books to find any law or Act of the national assembly which clothed the Anambra police commissioner with powers to shut down a federal academic institution as the CP had threatened to do in the recorded meeting.
“Obviously, Mr Orutugu stepped beyond his bounds by threatening to shut down the Federal Polytechnic Oko under any guise.
“Given the magnitude of the security failure that happened in the town, we expected to see a sobre police chief who would commit himself to greater efforts to forestall future occurrences, not the concerted efforts put up by the CP to blame or threaten the community or the frightened students”.
The communique called on appropriate authorities to ensure that enhanced security was put in place in Oko town, and that the constitutional rights of Nigerians in the locality and its environs were respected, while those behind the recent mayhem in the town are unmasked and brought to justice.
