More Nigerians are getting panic-stricken over the new directives by the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba Alkali to police formations nationwide to be on alert.
The Inspector General had on Sunday issued a statement asking commanders to take charge the situations in major locations including schools, hospitals, recreational centres, and other places that attracts crowd.
Seen as indications of intelligence on imminent attacks by terrorists, Nigerians are apprehensive of where and how the attacks in their daily lives.
“The IGP has however tasked strategic police managers at various levels to prioritize the use of intelligence gathering networks, particularly traditional/local intelligence to locate criminal hideouts and flush them out before they strike. He has equally charged all officers and men to be on the offensive, and take the fight against crime to the doorposts of suspected criminal elements, including bushes and uncompleted buildings, profile them, and charge those found wanting to courts accordingly.
“Against the backdrop of this development, Nigerians are hereby urged to cooperate with the Police as many police operatives will be seen at strategic areas, routes and communities, in order to suppress the antics and criminal activities of men of the underworld. The IGP has however warned officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force to be civil, professional and humane in the course of discharging their duties,” the IGP had said on Sunday.
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Responding, Mr. Zacheus Adewumi, a Uber driver, told NPO Reports Sunday evening at the Ikeja Shopping Mall that the warning and directive, though, has created some fears in the minds of the people.
“I think it is good that we are being indirectly warned with the directive so everybody is alert but I must say that it has its negative impacts as well. I carried a passenger today who was on his way to the stadium but his mom called him I guess from Ibadan and asked if he had seen the warning by the police boss. The passenger was told by his mother to avoid crowded places for now. He changed route and returned home,” he said
A security man at a major shopping mall on Lateef Jakande Road, Ikeja, who spoke with NPO Reports on condition of anonimity said security officials at the mall were called in for new instructions by the management of the mall to take new directives over how to scrutinize customers coming into the mall.
“It is a new way we do our things now because we now have now new orders. We have created another layer of screening and so, you cannot just come into the mall directly. You meet the first layer of screening where you drop all you carry like bags etc.,” the security man said.
A security consultant, Major Hamza Bin-Gyadi, who spoke with the NPO Reports in Abuja Monday morning, explained that people are now being more careful in their neighbourhood with the security awareness.