Police commissioners from Kogi and Benue states led a joint security patrol along their shared border on Thursday, part of a widening effort to coordinate operations against crime in the corridor separating the two states.
Kogi State Commissioner of Police Naziru Bello Kankarofi and his Benue State counterpart, Cletus C.N. Nwadiogbu, jointly conducted the “Handshake Patrol” in Ankpa town, a border community in Kogi’s Ankpa Local Government Area, the Kogi police command said in a statement Thursday.
The statement was issued by ASP Saliu Oyiza Afusat, Police Public Relations Officer for the Kogi State Command.
The event drew a large gathering of officials and community representatives from both states, including traditional rulers from the border areas, Benue State Border Commissioner Solomon Adaga, and the Kogi governor’s senior special assistant on security, Ahmed Mohammed, according to the statement. Members of the Police Community Relations Committee, representatives of Fulani settlers, youth groups and other local leaders also attended.
Addressing the gathering, the two commissioners said their commands would keep up coordinated patrols, joint operations and intelligence sharing along the border, and cautioned that state boundaries should not be used as hiding places by criminals. They called on residents to report credible information to police and warned against sheltering suspects, the statement said.
The commissioners also held a closed-door session with stakeholders to discuss security concerns in the area and ways to improve the response to emerging threats. Community leaders pledged continued cooperation with police on crime prevention, according to the statement.
The patrol’s centerpiece was a handshake between the two commissioners at the boundary line dividing Kogi and Benue, a gesture police described as symbolizing the two commands’ commitment to closer operational coordination.
The commissioners credited Inspector-General of Police Olatunji Rilwan Disu with backing the inter-command collaboration and thanked the governors of both states for their continued support to security agencies.
The Kogi police command said it would continue working with its Benue counterpart and local stakeholders to combat crime in the border communities and urged the public to remain vigilant and share information that could help prevent crime.
