The Commissioner of Police, Eastern Ports, Tami Evelyn
Peterside, disclosed this during a courtesy visit on her by the Energy and
Maritime Reporters (EMR) on Monday, November 15, 2021. She added that this was
in line with the core mandate given to the command by the Inspector General of
Police, Usman Alkali Baba
CP Peterside noted that both the media and the police work
towards achieving the same goal of building a stronger society, with the media
reporting for society to get better, while the police secure society for peace
and progress.
Deployed to the command as CP in 2020, Peterside’s gallantry
paid off recently with the arrest of port vandals who allegedly destroyed the
beams anchoring Berth 8 at the Port Harcourt Ports and were extending the
vandalism to Berth 7 before the successful interception by the police.
The command, under her watch, has also checkmated the
activities of unmarked taxis that were brought into the port at night by
criminal elements to cart away stolen goods; and while the arrested quay
vandals have been charged to court and remanded in custody, the command
prepares to take the battle to receivers of the stolen items.
According to the CP, the incidents of beam vandalism are,
for now, a peculiarity of the Port Harcourt Ports only and not witnessed in
Onne, Calabar and Warri, the other ports under the command.
Her proactive steps in collaboration with sister security
forces reportedly kept the four ports safe during the “EndSars” protests, and
are now being deployed against sea piracy, with several gunboats already
acquired to check the menace.
To ensure a peaceful work environment, the command now meets
quarterly with host communities as a way of forestalling youth protest and the
barricading of port facilities.
“It was so much at the beginning of the year”, the CP
lamented. “Every day I’ll be called, oh the boys have blocked this… When I
asked they said, Madam na so dem dey do. I said but this is not right. These
companies will not work for one or two weeks because the boys are blocking the
place.”
Enquiring into the cause of the blockages, she devised her
solution after the last protest which took place in April. “I said, from now on
I am going to be having quarterly meetings with you people. No more blocking of
anywhere.
Anything you need as a community or what, through your EXCO,
write a letter to that company, copy me….We have had the meeting twice this
year, remaining that of December. That thing has stopped. Anything that gives
them concern, they write the company and write me, and I invite the company.
Since then, business in Onne has been going smoothly…”, she enthused.
Earlier in an address, the chairman of EMR, Martins Giadom,
congratulated the CP on her posting and sought collaboration with her office
for better performances on duty by both EMR and the command. He also commended
the CP and men of the command for their gallantry in arresting beam vandals and
criminals at the port.
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