FRANCIS SADHERE, WARRI
A Divisional Police Officer, Aniete Eyoh, in charge of Avenue Police Station, Warri, Delta State, has made history, having built the first digital police station in the state. The installation of Closed Circuit Televisions in and around the station has reportedly helped to check rampant cases of bribe-taking among policemen on duty.
Eyoh, a Chief Superintendent of Police, who was posted to the station a few months ago, reportedly saw how vulnerable the station was and decided to break the crime cycle by monitoring officers’ activities closely. According to inside sources, Eyoh can conveniently monitor the activities of his officers and men with the CCTV even when he is not in the police station.
“Since the installation of these CCTV, cases of bribery in the police station have reduced drastically and the people have started to, once again, have confidence in the police,” an inside source informed. The source added that as a result of this move, many police officers and men deployed in the station had been lobbying for transfer, “to get out of this hot zone.”
Apart from monitoring the activities of his men, Eyoh is also able, with the aid of the CCTV cameras, to monitor all activities going on around the police station. “He also ensured that all the offices in the divisional police station use computers so that paper work will not be cumbersome. The imputation of all documents in the computer systems makes it easy to recover any case file,” the source added.
Eyoh did not only stop at installing CCTV and other cameras in the police station, barely a few months after he assumed office at the station, the relationship between the police and the Okere-Urhobo community in the Warri South Local Government area, which is his area of coverage, had improved, sources said. Findings showed that residents even donated building materials and labour to support the ongoing project of a perimeter fencing for the station.
In an interview with our correspondent in Warri, the Chairman of the ‘B’ Division Police Community Relations Committee, Mr. Christopher Otumu, said Okere-Urhobo had never had it so good in terms of policing.
“We can attest to the fact that the high crime rates recorded in this area before now have reduced drastically and this is because the officers and men of the police station have re-doubled their efforts in ensuring adequate protection of law and order, considering the cosmopolitan nature of the area,” he said.