Obaseki begs policemen to return to work 

Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo state, has called on policemen to return to work. 

Following the crisis that trailed the #EndSARS protest, policemen had reportedly left their duty posts across the state, thereby leading to the break down of law and order.

During the crisis, police stations were attacked and there were jailbreaks at the Benin and Oko prisons where 1,993 inmates reportedly escaped. 

But while paying a solidarity visit to Johnson Kokumon, commissioner of police in the state, on Monday, Obaseki said his government would pay hospital bill for officers who were injured during the crisis.

“Edo state government will now proceed immediately to begin to rebuild your destroyed building. We already ordered some patrol vehicles and we hope it will be delivered in the next few weeks. We will responsible for the hospital bills of officers injured in the last few weeks,” he said.

“Every inmate that escape from our correctional centres will be arrested. Hoodlums burnt the centres thinking they have destroyed particulars of escapees but they don’t know that their biometrics were not within the centres.”

Reacting, the police chief said the command arrested 126 criminal suspects, and that out of the numbers 10 of them were inmates who escaped from the prisons.

He also said about 11 of their personnel were injured and that 10 of them have been discharged from the hospital while one is still at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital.