Nigeria’s Chief of Naval Staff, Ibok-Ete Ekwe Ibas, a Rear Admiral, yesterday, Monday, June 5, 2017, led a delegation of top naval personnel to the Akim Police Station, Calabar, Cross River State, where he assessed the damage done on the station by men of the Nigerian Navy during last week’s bloody confrontation between the Police and Navy which resulted in the partial destruction of the station, the burning of vehicles and losss of lives.
At what insider Police sources referred to as fence mending mission, Ibas expressed regret that the unfortunate incident led to the wanton destruction of lives and property. One source was specific that he condemned in strong terms the disagreement between this security agents of government emphasising that their training ordinarily discourages what was expressed with the attack on the station. Punitive measures he assured, will be taken against all those identified as having encouraged or participated in the break down of law and order. He commiserate with the families of the Policemen who lost their lives and gave assurances that this unfortunate incident ccan never reoccur in the distant future.
Some Police personnel who spoke with www.calitown.com at the Akim Police Station on condition of anonymity maintained that but for the stand down order issued to them by Hafiz Inuwa Mohammed, CRS Commissioner of Police, “we would not have let our comrades die just like that. As we bury ours, the Navy should have also bury theirs. We were all trained to use rifles, if a bullet shot by the Navy can kill a policeman, a bullet equally shot by the Police can also kill a naval personnel. It has happened, it has happened, let us pray that this kind of thing does not happen again because I am sure if it happens again, we will have casualties on both sides”, one source said.
