Senior police officers are angry over the handling of Boko Haram menace by the leadership, especially the escape of the prime suspect at the weekend. They believed that the leadership’s tardiness in stopping the Islamist sect from unleashing terror on the people had led to unnecessary deaths and loss of property estimated at billions of Naira and the dwindling image of the police force.

Uneasy calm on Tuesday pervaded the Louis Edet House Police Force Headquarters in Abuja, as some senior officers are reportedly kicking over the circumstances surrounding the escape of Kabiru Sokoto, the alleged mastermind of the Christmas Day 2011 bombing of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in Madalla, Niger State.

Sokoto, a topshot of the Boko Haram, which claimed responsibility for the Christmas Day attack that claimed 43 lives, was arrested at the Borno State Governor’s Lodge, Abuja last Saturday. He escaped on Sunday while he was being taken by about 10 policemen on a search of his Abaji’s home near Abuja. The suspect was handcuffed when he escaped. Since then, public anger and criticisms had continued to trail his escape.

The senior police officers, including commissioners and deputy inspector-generals of police (DIGs), may have protested to the Presidency and “an appropriate” security quarter over the development, amid fears of heightened suspicion and anger among the personnel. Tongues are wagging over the propriety of entrusting investigation into the activities of a high profile suspect of the dreaded Boko Haram on Police Commissioner Zakari Bui, who hails from Borno State. Biu was eased out of the police force by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, before he was recalled recently and given the rank of a deputy commissioner.

Bui, who was promoted commissioner last month, is presently under house arrest over the embarrassing escape of Sokoto. The suspended police commissioner was a prominent member of late General Sani Abacha regime. He appeared before the Oputa panel over alleged torture of detainees. He is a course mate of Inspector-General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, who will retire next month as CP Biu.

Though the protests are presently covert, some of the visibly angry officers told Daily Sun that Sokoto’s escape from custody was embarrassing to the police force against President Goodluck Jonathan’s recent pronouncement that members of the Boko Haram sect had infiltrated government and security agencies.

The officers said Sokoto’s escape worsened police image with the recent escape of an alleged co-founder of the sect, Aliyu Tishako, from custody, and the June 16, 2011 bombing of the police headquarters in Abuja.
“We are fed up with what is happening in the police force, and from all indications, the rules of engagement, procedures, orders and directives are increasingly being messed up. There are several questions to be answered on the circumstances surrounding the escape of this suspect, and we do hope the President would be serious and decisive this time around. He must act fast before the growing distrust and disloyalty, consume the entire police force”, a senior officer who pleaded anonymity, remarked yesterday.

Meanwhile, following the sustained attacks on police and other security formations especially at the North-eastern flank of the country, some Squadron Commanders of the Police Mobile Force (PMF), have kicked against a proposed three-week training programme scheduled to commence at the PMF Training School in Gwoza, Borno State.

The police authorities had, through a recent wireless message, signed by the Commissioner of Police in charge of the PMF, Mr. Philemon Leha, directed all Squadron Commanders across the country to report at the Gwoza training camp on February 1, for the 21-day training programme. But some of the commanders have described the move as packaging the officers on a suicide mission, citing the recent killing in Yobe State of two senior officers, including one of their colleagues and an Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations, both of whom hailed from Katsina State, as a serious operational blunder.

Rather than assembling the over 50 Squadron Commanders for training in Borno State, where Boko Haram had stepped up attacks in the wake of the state of emergency declared by President Jonathan in some parts of the country, the officers expressed their preference to undergo the programme at the PMF Training School at Ila-Oragun, in Osun State.

“First, it is not a good operational judgment to withdraw all Squadron Commanders from their duty posts at this time when there are a lot of security challenges. Besides, considering the fact that the situation is still tense in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, and some other states, why should the authorities decide to hold such a programme in Borno, where the officers are vulnerable to attack.

The fact is that if Boko Haram members know that all the PMF commanders are in Gwoza, they could be tempted to strike there. And since we have an alternative, why not go there if the programme must hold now?” one of the commanders asked.