Our Reporter
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Kogi State Newspaper Corporation, the publisher of The Graphic, Mr. Dayo Thomas, has urged the relevant authorities in the country to put in place special welfare programme for the families of serving policemen across Nigeria.
He made these pleas on Thursday during an advocacy visit by the Integrity Forum, a Non- Governmental Organization to his office in Lokoja, Kogi State. He said the ongoing armed conflicts , insecurity, lack of state protection and recurring humanitarian crises has further exposed Nigeria Police officers and their families to serious dangers.
Led by its President, Blessing Ogbe, the association lamented the rate at which policemen are being violently killed and their families hunted and attacked by criminals was becoming a source of concern.
According to her, over 50 policemen have been killed in the country in the last one year while the families of many of the officers are being attacked daily. One of the victims was one Inspector Tuesday Oluwasegun Osagbemi , a native of Ponyan in Kogi State, who was killed in front of his office in Ibadan, Oyo State leaving behind a wife and children.
“You would recall that the Family of the immediate elder brother of the deceased alleged threats to her life and that of her children which was reported to the Police and also published on page 10, Saturday Telegraph of 21st December, 2019 and page 6 of The Graphic Newspaper of 25th December, 2019″, she disclosed.
According to newspaper reports, one Mrs. Oluwafunmilayo E. Ayodele, the wife of a police officer, had alleged threats to her life and that of her children and was physically attacked with wounds on her body that almost cost her life as she was an asthma patient.
She alleged that her life and those of her children were being threatened, “Your husband is handling issues on criminals, we will also deal with you,” the attackers had threatened on a paper pasted on her wall.
According to her neighbour, some unknown men broke into their home at night while she and the children were attending a night vigil. Upon discovering she was not in the house, they destroyed valuables in the living room.
The attackers, however, did not take away any of their properties. According to her, the incident started on July 6, 2020, revealing that true to the threats of the hoodlums, she was attacked on July 12 and sustained degrees of injuries.