Success Nwogu, Ilorin

Newly appointed Kwara State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Aminu Saleh, has said that many people lost their lives during the recent armed robbery attack on some commercial banks in Offa because of intelligence break down.

According to him, the large number of the robbers overwhelmed the few policemen on ground at the time.

Saleh disclosed that the police also had low connectivity with members of the community, admitting that they had no knowledge of the attack beforehand.

The new CP made the disclosure on Thursday while speaking with journalists in Ilorin, the state capital.

Lamenting that the police had inadequate armoured personnel carriers to effectively guard Kwara, he said that this and several other challenges contributed in preventing officers from adequately confronting the armed robbers.

Saleh said, “We had an intelligence break down. We had many criminals attacking a few policemen.

“We had little information on the attack before it happened. However, we’re re-strategising and repositioning our men. We’re working on the community to ensure that those lapses we observed are addressed.

“What essentially went wrong is our response capacity. We’re going to correct all those anomalies and get our men to be more responsive.

“We’re on the trail of the suspects and a lot of successes have been recorded. It is true that we have deficit of APC in the state; in fact we have two moribund ones. But there is already an arrangement on the ground by the state government to intervene and assist in this manner.”

While condoling with the families of victims of the attack, Saleh stated that the Command would ensure that there was no recurrence of such in the state.

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