By South East Correspondent I Monday, Oct.27, 2025
IHIALA, Anambra – A furious police chief has slammed wealthy locals for letting their own police station crumble into a “shameful and unacceptable” ruin—years after it was torched in violent protests.
Commissioner of Police Ikioye Orutugu didn’t mince his words when he toured the devastated Ihiala Area Command, where officers are forced to work among burnt-out shells and without a single patrol car.
The station, in Anambra State, was heavily damaged during the chaos of the 2020 #EndSARS protests, which were hijacked by what the CP called “criminals” to destroy police facilities.
But instead of seeing the community pull together to fix the vital building, CP Orutugu found shocking neglect—and he laid the blame firmly at the feet of the town’s richest residents.
”It is unbelievable that an area command located in a community blessed with successful and influential individuals could remain in this terrible state,” the top cop fumed.
The Commissioner described the conditions as “dehumanizing,” with officers protecting the community while working in the burnt-out, unrepaired wreck of a building.
”It is shameful that the Ihiala Area Command is in such a sorry state—no patrol vehicles, no infrastructure, and officers working in unimaginable conditions to protect this same community,” he stressed.
Ihiala, he pointed out, is a town “with many prominent sons and daughters who are capable of rebuilding these facilities, providing vehicles, and motivating the police to perform better. Yet, nothing has been done.”
He demanded to know why they have stood by, waiting for the government to step in when their own safety is at stake.
’Done By People From Within’
The CP also had a stern warning for residents about their own role in the destruction of public property.
He described it as “disgraceful” that locals had destroyed government property built for their own benefit.
”These structures were built on Ihiala land, not elsewhere,” he said. “No outsider can come here to destroy them without insiders; it was done by people from within.”
He warned that residents must take ownership of security infrastructure, saying: “If you keep waiting for the government to rebuild them, what happens if anger rises again? Will you not destroy them once more?”
CP Orutugu called on community leaders, political stakeholders, and the town’s elite to immediately step up to rebuild the command and restore effective security before it’s too late.
