These, indeed, are very worrisome times across Nigeria. Recently, I have been having sleepless nights over the rising insecurity In our Dear state.
From Banditry attacks to random kidnappings, the palpable fears in the hearts of our people and the disruption of our Education system, the story has not been palatable.
As at this morning, the school pupils and their teachers who were abducted by Bandits at Oriire Local Government are still held in captivity.
Every time I saw a cloud of rain in the sky, I became very uncomfortable. Will this rain still fall on the unprotected heads of these innocent and hapless victims?
ALSO READ: Sharafadeen Alli Condemns Abduction of Adelabu’s sister, sons, Urges Swift Rescue
I kept thinking about the sad reality that these captured victims are going through extremely difficult moments. I have heard of the terrible experience of victims of previous kidnappings. The terrible stories of how they eat leaves, how they drank their own urine.
What are the victims feeding on? What are they drinking? I thought about the toddler and the Mum. The little children and the adult teachers.
Are they also feeding on leaves and urine? What are the health conditions of even the adults before they were captured?
If their condition requires a daily intake of medication, how have they been coping since the supply have been cut short by those wicked souls who abducted them?
As a parent, I couldn’t brace myself to watch the gory videos being released by those animals. If the attack at Oriire was made possible because of certain failures of security in the remote areas, the shocking incident of the kidnapping of a young woman and her two sons in Ibadan dealt me another blow.
The young woman, a younger sister of my dear brother, Adebayo Adelabu and her twin sons happened in broad daylight and in the center of the city!
I have been praying for all the victims and wishing that Almighty Allaah will intervene so that all of them will be reunited with their loved ones very soon.
However, beyond the prayers and meditation, I have been trying to analyze our areas of failing as people who have responsibilities of securing the lives and properties of our people.
I believe that we need to accept the fact that there is a shared responsibility between the Local, State and Federal Governments.
As a Local Government Chairman or a state Governor, we must realize the facts that the responsibilities of securing the lives and properties of our citizens begin from our desks.
Intelligence gathering is key to a successful security architecture. Infrastructures at the grassroots level is also key. We need a stronger Local Government Administration.
Good enough, the president is disposed to the granting of full autonomy for Local Governments. We have to key into this policy immediately.
Our Local Governments should possess the capacity to attend to certain levels of security challenges on their own and where they are unable to contain such challenges, the state government must be ready to intervene immediately.
Bandits operate in our Forests. As Government, at the state and Local Governments levels, we must be able to police our forests. In this area, I must recognize the proactive measure by the president, the approval for the establishment of Forest Guards.
States and Local Governments should embrace this initiative and collaborate with the Federal Government to strengthen security.
The establishment of the Amotekun Corps is a very welcome development but I have issues with their welfare and the fact that they are ill-equipped. I am not comfortable with a situation where people who are saddled with such enormous responsibilities do not have a structured appointment with Government.
I am equally not comfortable with the fact that most of these corps are armed with dane guns. The system through which the Amotekun Corps are operating need total overhauling.
Apart from their welfare and equipments, their modus operandi should change drastically. We need to train a unit for intelligence gathering. I have a lot of issues with their postings. We need to conceive of ideas of how they will be dispatched to monitor our forests in remote areas.
We need to look at mobility and information technology. They don’t necessarily need to engage with criminals at all times, most especially, when it is obvious that they lack the capacity but they should be effective in intelligence gathering and tracking of criminals and when there is the need to report to appropriate authorities, they must possess the technologies to so do.
I also think that we have come to the point where we do not have any excuse for our inabilities to track down criminals in our urban areas. It is mostly unacceptable that criminals would kidnap people in broad daylight within our cities and we lack the ability to immediately track them down.
If these criminals know that the state possesses the ability to track down any time they commit crimes, their audacity to commit crimes will reduce considerably.
It is certainly not the responsibility of the president to install security cameras in our cities. That responsibility is that of the state governor and as a Governor, I will not shy away from committing myself to ensuring that we immediately build a system which is capable of tracking down criminals through technology.
I also know that it is a responsibility of the Governor of a state to seek intervention from the Federal Government whenever the state lacks the capacity to contain security challenges.
As a Governor, I can not afford to be helpless and I will never be helpless to defend our people and secure their lives and properties.
May this difficult times pass us over.
