The Area Commander of the Police in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Assistant Commissioner of Police Okon Okon, has cautioned members of the Police Community Relations Committee in the area against giving cover to suspected criminals.
Okon who described the PCRC members as partners in helping the police to fight against crimes in the state, noted that they should not been the ones seen protecting such undesirable elements.
He spoke recently at the Police state Police Officers’ Mess during a seminar organised by the PCRC divisional executives in the Abeokuta Metro Area Command.
The ACP also warned the PCRC members not to allow suspected criminals to hide under them for protection saying that giving them such a room would encourage them to continue to perpetrate crimes.
Okon said, “Some people might have affiliation with the criminals knowingly or unknowingly. Don’t allow them to use you because they will commit an offence and they will want to hide under you because they know you to seek their easy release.
“That will make him go back to the society again and he does the same thing that he has done previously , because he feels there is somebody who is always there to defend him.”
Okon, therefore, advised the members to keep their strategy of operations secret so that they would not preempt them in committing their heinous act.
“Criminals cannot be allowed because when you meet at the PCRC meeting, you are discussing strategies, you are discussing what you want to do. You are discussing how you want to get the resources you need.
“And so if the criminals know what your strategies are, they can always plan ahead of you. That is why we say don’t allow criminals to be part of you.” he stressed.
The PCRC state Chairman, Alhaji Ibrahim Olaniyan, stated that the major objective for establishing the committee was to get rid of criminals from the community.
According to Olaniyan, “That is what we stand for, to be a good ambassador of the police. We bridge the gap between the community and the police and to make sure that we get rid of the community of bad eggs.”
Also speaking, the Chairman, Abeokuta Metro Area Command, Arc. Samson Popoola, noted that the main purpose of the seminar was to inform the members about the activities of the PCRC in the state.
He said, “Our focus is to equip our members to know what PCRC is all about, because you cannot be in an organisation without actually knowing what you are . So, we are equipping our excos so that they will go back to their divisions and different communities so that they will be able to disseminate whatever they have learnt here today ” .
