Unexploded civil war bombs found in Anambra, other states

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The commissioner of police in charge of Explosive Ordnance Department (EOD) of the Nigeria Police, Mr. Maikudi Shehu has said that some Unexploded Ordinances (UXOs) planted during the Nigerian Civil War had been found in Anambra, Imo and Delta states.

Shehu, stated this in Lagos at the EOD’s third quarter conference with senior officers, base/unit commanders said the ordnance were recovered and demobilised between May and this month.

He said the explosives were found by construction workers building in the three states.

“The successes recorded over this period are in the area of UXOs which were left after the civil war.

“We recovered some of them in Imo, Anambra and Delta states within this period.

“They were discovered by builders while digging foundations and they quickly noticed the police.

“We had to move in quickly to see how we will secure those things and demobilise them without any injury to members of the public.

“We also ensured we did it quietly to avoid causing panic among the people. About 10 incidents were recorded and we successfully recovered, demobilised those UXOs.

“There is need for us to continue to upgrade and ensure that our technicians receive the best training to stay on top of their game for the safety of the people.

“We advise people not to touch anything they find looking suspicious but should quickly alert the nearest police station so that EOD experts would be dispatched to inspect, recover and diffuse such objects if they are harmful,” he said.

Shehu also announced that the American government had donated two vans to the EOD.

“This is a great feat; the government of America will be sending experts to come and train our officers on how to operate the highly- technical vans. Our task is enormous. You can see what is happening in the North East, so, we need to up our game to meet the security challenges confronting the nation,” he said.

He said despite the efforts made by the Nigeria Police and other security agencies in the fight against terrorism and other criminal activities threatening the internal security of the country, “we still witness pockets of security threats capable of disrupting the unity of our dear country.”

He said it is the primary responsibility of the police to confront and curtail insurgencies through capacity building and deployment of modern threat-monitoring equipment.

“We remain resolute and unwavering in our commitment to fighting all forms of criminality through continuous synergy with other security agencies .The current trend of insecurity could be tackled if we harness our combined efforts productively in the right direction,” he added.

He urged the police personnel to “continuously re-strategise with innovations and new methodology aimed at confronting criminal activities.”

He also charged the officers to develop a workable mechanism, intelligence gathering, new concepts and strategies to subdue criminal elements and their activities.

Besides, he said the EOD had evaluated its role in the  ‘Operation Puff Adder’ campaign launched by the inspector- general of police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar Adamu , aimed at stopping bandits from carrying out their criminal activities.

“We are ready to do our duties, although it is enormous. We are at airports, seaports, and borders. You know that our borders are too large, so we have a huge task ahead of us,” he added.

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