Home video contributes to crime –IG

The Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, on Friday attributed the high crime rate in the country to the penchant of Nigerian youths for home videos.

Okiro, who was speaking at the inauguration of the Crime Prevention Campaign of Nigeria in Abuja, regretted that many of the story lines in home videos encouraged crime. Okiro, who was represented at the event by the Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Haz Iwendi (CP), attributed the involvement of students in the act of kidnapping as an example, saying such should be discouraged. He also called on parents to always guide their wards and insist on knowing what they were doing even when they (parents) are not at home.

Meanwhile, detectives from the Zone 7 police headquarters, Abuja have arrested an employee of the Federal Road Safety Commission for allegedly issuing 103 fake employment letters to unsuspecting applicants. The suspect, Mrs. Linda Usen, was also said to have collected the sum of N3,130,000 million from her victims.

She was alleged to have told the victims that the commission was recruiting and that she was in a position to help them gain employment into the commission. Initially, she was said to have been paid N985,000 during the first transaction to facilitate the recruitment of 59 applicants.

She later got N2,145,00 during the second transaction. The money was meant to facilitate the employment of another 44 applicants. The suspect, who spoke with newsmen at the polcie zonal headquarters, confessed to the crime, but accused the police of covering two other suspects, whom she was allegedly fronting for.

She said the two suspects, who were said to also be in detention, were part of the gang and that she had been doing the business with them for over three years. But the Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of the zone, Mrs. Ivy Okoronkwo, denied the charge, saying there were no convincing reasons yet to allude to Usen's accusation.