Insecurity: IPAC demands redeployment of Cross River police commissioner 

The Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) in Cross River state has called on the Inspector General of Police to urgently redeploy the state Commissioner of Police, CP Sule Balarabe, and the Deputy Commissioner Operations, DCP Francis Idu, over recent security challenges in the state.

State chairman of IPAC, Comrade Anthony Bissong Attah, who doubles as the state chairman of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) and who was flanked by 10 chairmen of other political parties, made the call in a press conference in Calabar, Monday, 

He said, “With the current state of insecurity in Cross River State where a serving Commissioner for Women Affairs has been kidnapped for about a week now, and a governorship candidate of PRP escaping assassination last weekend with two persons killed, we have elected not to work with the current leadership of the Police Command.

“It is now evident that the leadership of the Nigerian Police Force in Cross River lacks capacity to enforce law and order in our State. The spate of kidnapping, robbery and killings on our highways is totally unacceptable. We have found a dangerous and unabating weakness in the operations department.”

The IPAC chairman explained that, “It is against the background of the foregoing that we demand the immediate redeployment of the Commissioner of Police and the DCP Operations for poor relationship with the public and inability to gather and deploy sufficient intelligence to rescue the state from security challenges.

“We want the next CP upon resumption of duty to effect a comprehensive reshuffling of Divisional Police Officers, DPO, across the state and especially Cross River North that has become a major flashpoint of political violence in the state. This, in our considered opinion, is the only safety valve to remedy the already dilapidated security architecture in our State.”

IPAC also took a swipe at activities of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in the State, and gave the electoral body a 24-hour ultimatum to allow IPAC members inspect Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BIVAS) sent to the state which has been a subject of controversies.

“We give the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner 24 hours to allow political parties inspect the BVAS in addition to take full record of the IMEI number of the 3,281 BVAS machines to reignite and renew our confidence in the commission,” he said.