Onwuka Nzeshi and Cajetan Mmuta 
Barely two weeks after the nationwide protest against police brutality turned violent, resulting in wanton destruction of public property including police stations, some state governors have offered to rebuild the destroyed police stations in their states and pay compensation to police personnel who were either wounded or lost their lives in the crisis.
In some of the states, the governors have also offered scholarships to the children of police officers who were killed by the angry mob that attacked several police stations, across the country.
Governor Seyi Makinde, who visited the headquarters of the Oyo State Police Command in Eleyele, Ibadan, yesterday, promised to rebuild all police stations burnt during the #EndSARS protest in the state. He also pledged to provide other logistics that would make the police work better.
Makinde was at the command to sympathise with the police over the death of some officers and burning of their stations and patrol vehicles. New Telegraph gathered that no fewer than five police officers were killed, 12 injured and five stations burnt during the protest in Oyo State.
The governor pledged that the families of the officers killed during the protest would be compensated from the N500 million fund earlier announced by the government. The fund is to cater for those who suffered losses during the protest.
“The Commissioner of Police just handed over a document to me few minutes ago and it contains the request from the Oyo State Command of the Nigeria Police; stations that have to be rebuilt, logistics that have to be taken care of. “I have not read it, I stand before you to say that everything listed in it for us to do have been accepted and we will do it,” Makinde said.
The governor recalled that the past few weeks had been a challenge for the Police in Nigeria, but assured that the Oyo State Government was solidly with them at these trying times. He urged the officers to put what had happened behind them and go back to work so as not to allow criminals take over the state.
“We need your cooperation to ensure that arsonists, anarchists are brought to book and I’m here to work with you to ensure that the burden you are carrying becomes light. “The Police are a very important part of our community. I stand before you to say that not every member of the Police is bad.
It is time to put everything that has happened behind us and work towards nation- building. That I said I support the protest does not mean I am against you. I am for the protection of everyone’s right, including the right of the officers and men of the Nigerian Police Force,” he said.
Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Leye Oyebade, who was present during the governor’s visit, urged the officers not to be deterred by the incident, but to return to their duty posts to carry out their constitutional responsibilities of protecting lives and property.
“We need to move forward, the statutory responsibility of the police cannot be given to any other security agencies. Police must go back and take their rightful place and make the state calm,” Oyebade said.
Earlier, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Nwachukwu Enwonwu, said the month of October was a sorrowful one, not only for Oyo State, but for the entire police force. In Edo State, Governor Godwin Obaseki, yesterday, promised that the state government would rebuild all the police stations burnt across the state during the recent #EndSARS protests.
Obaseki, who gave the assurance when he paid a solidarity visit to the Edo State Police Command in Benin City, the state capital, also assured that government would buy new vehicles for the smooth operations of the police personnel. “We have already ordered for patrol vehicles and we hope that the delivery will be in a few weeks. This is in addition to rebuilding all the razed police stations immediately.
“We will be responsible for the hospital bills of every police man or woman who had been hurt as a result of the incident of the last few weeks,” he said.
Obaseki pleaded with the police authorities to prevail on officers and men of the state command to return to their duty posts and make their presence visible in parts of the state.
He said that the absence of the police along the roads and some conspicuous places in the state could easily be interpreted by the hoodlums as a sign of weakness and cowardice on the part of the police. The governor said that the police should do everything within their powers to quickly correct the wrong impression.
“The #EndSARS protesters whom I asked you to give protection to, were the legitimate ones, and not those attacking police stations, Oko prison and Sapele Road Prison and their property. The people, who did all these, were criminals and they should be treated as such.
“I’m here today to assure you of our support. Criminals cannot take over our state, under whatever guise? They should not intimidate you and you should not allow your morale to be dampened. “The criminals cannot win; we know them. We have dealt with them in other places. They called themselves lions and tigers in the political sphere.
They have so many friends who are just mere criminals; who don’t want to work hard, but just to prey on those working hard in our society. We will not allow them,” he said.
Obaseki assured that the state government would work with the police to ensure that every inmate, who escaped from the two correctional facilities in the state, was arrested and returned to custody.
Earlier, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Johnson Kokumo, said that 11 policemen and women were injured, seven police stations razed, 16 police patrol vehicles burnt, five police officers’ personal vehicles burnt and 31 exhibit vehicles either burnt or destroyed.
Kokumo, however, said that seven AK-47 rifles had been recovered, with 126 suspects arrested during the protests. It would be recalled that a few days ago Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State had announced N20 million compensation to each of families of soldiers and policemen allegedly killed by members of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples Organization of Biafra (IPOB) in Oyigbo during the #EndSARS protest.
Wike made the declaration during a condolence visit to the Rivers State Police Command, Port Harcourt, where he met with the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Joseph Mukan, and some members of the bereaved families. Wike described the gruesome murder of the policemen and soldiers as unacceptable and unfortunate.
Similarly, the Lagos State Government has awarded scholarships to the children of policemen killed during the violence that trailed the #EndSARS protest. Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo- Olu, announced this during his visit to the Lagos Police Command Headquarters, Ikeja, last week.
Sanwo-Olu promised that the government will compensate the families of the slain policemen, take care of their burial expenses, and foot the hospital bills of injured officers. Sanwo-Olu said all damaged personal and official vehicles of Police officers will be replaced, and insurance policies for Police officers in Lagos worked out.
On the burnt police stations and police posts across the State, Sanwo-Olu said the state government would rebuild all. He told a cross section of police officers during a soul-lifting event at the State Police Command in Ikeja, that plans were already in place to remodel and build ultramodern police stations that would eventually become a model of what police stations should look like in Nigeria.
The state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, said six policemen were killed while 38 others were wounded in Lagos State during the protests. Odumosu also disclosed that 30 police stations and posts were burnt, while 18 police stations and posts were vandalized while seventy- one police operational vehicles were torched.
