The sad story with the above headline appeared in the 27 April, 2021, edition of The Chronicle. It was disturbing reading a story like that and that was not the kind of story that should have found its way into the media in the first place. I saw it in another paper and it was good that certain sensitive aspects were taken off.
I begin with an appeal to the Inspector General of police to take the necessary steps to prevent a recurrence of such an incident when a police personnel’s weapon will fail to fire and he or she is left at the mercy of robbers. Your weapon becomes a huge source of confidence to you in any event but when it is the case that your weapon cannot be trusted, then it is as good as embarking on a duty unarmed though such a duty demands use of a weapon.
The tragedy of 38773G, Sgt Thomas Akoka might not be the first of its kind. A weapon not firing is a common phenomenon. But what has necessitated this comment is the fact that a similar incident occurred this year when the weapon of a police officer disappointed him in a critical situation. But for the intervention of the locals, the notorious suspect would have harmed him and his colleagues or even killed some of them.
I restrained myself from talking about the security implications of such a situation. It must be addressed with the needed urgency.
As I said, various reasons can account for the inability of a weapon to fire; while some are technical, others are purely manual.
It is, however, prudent for the police administration to identify the causes and remedy them including ensuring periodic servicing of all weapons in the armouries, besides personnel, particularly those who carry weapons, doing frequent practice on the weapons.
The nation cannot afford to be losing lives easily like that because the deaths of these personnel seriously affect their families.
Ex WOI Bright Segbefia.
The post Re: Cop’s AK 47 fails to fire as armed robbers pounce on gold bullion appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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