Insecurity: Lawyers fault Anambra CP's threat to shut down Oko Poly

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BY Madu Obi

A civil society group, the League of Igbo Youth Lawyers (LIYOLAW) has faulted the Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Ikioye Orutugu for reportedly threatening to shut down the Federal Polytechnic, Oko over the alleged increasing security challenges in and around the institution.

CP Orutugu's statement came on the heels of security breaches in Oko town suspected to be the handiwork rival cult groups which, on June 19, 2025, left two people dead and some either injured or missing.

At a meeting with representatives of the town's leadership, the student union government of the Federal Polytechnic in the town and other stake holders, the CP threatened to shut down the federal institution if incidents of insecurity continued, and that police would deal with the people who caused the disturbances.

But in a communique after a meeting, the national secretary of the lawyer's group, Mr Obinnaya Asiegbu wondered how the CP under whose area of operation serious security lapses had occurred and which led to loss of lives of innocent Nigerians, felt justified to employ blame tactics on a terrorized community even when investigations into the tragedy were supposed to be ongoing.

The Communique read in part: "This group views with dismay comments of blame and threat levelled against the beleaguered community of Oko in Abambra State by CP Ikioye Orutugu during his recent visit to the town on the heels of the current bloody attacks by gunmen on innocent Nigerians living in the community.

"We note that investigations into the tragic attacks are supposed to be ongoing at the time of the CPs visit and therefore, to put the blame on the door of the community or the students was most unworthy.

Obviously, Orutugu stepped beyond his bounds by threatening to shut down the Federal Polytechnic Oko under any guise.

Given the magnitude of the security failure that happened in the town, we expected to see a sober police chief who would commit himself to greater efforts to forestall future occurrences, not the concerted efforts put up by the CP to blame or threaten the community or the frightened students".

The group called on appropriate authorities to ensure that enhanced security was put in place in Oko town, and that the constitutional rights of Nigerians in the locality and its environs were respected, while those behind the recent mayhem in the town are unmasked and brought to justice.

The group's leader, Stanley Okafor, said he was still searching the law books to find any law or Act of the national assembly which empowers the police commissioner to shut down a federal academic institution as the CP had threatened to do.