By Chukwudi Nweje
Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and political organisation, Afenifere, yesterday, reiterated its position that the only way to curb the wave of insecurity around the country is through State Police, restructuring and greater commitment of the security agencies.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, Afenifere renewed its call on President Bola Tinubu to issue a Presidential Order empowering states and local government areas willing to set up local police services to do so, provided such local outfit have necessary wherewithal to operate as a police formation.
It said: “Mechanisms must be put in place for restructuring of the country, in line with what we used to have before the military truncated the regional arrangement in 1966, such that constituents would be better positioned to take their fate in their own hands.
“A corollary to the foregoing is the need by federal and state governments to employ more hands into the security sector, provide necessary tools, including the deployment of modern devices to aid security agencies, as well as boost the morale of security.”
The organisation also urged Tinubu to meet with stakeholders in respective areas across the country with a view to coming up with mutually agreed solutions to identifying and proffer solution to criminal acts peculiar to particular parts of the country.
It stated that stakeholders, including the government, the security agencies, the citizens and the telecommunications network providers all have their part to play to put an end to, or, at least, drastically reduce kidnappings for ransom and terrorism around the country if they are truly committed to doing so.
“Section 14(2) (b) of 1999 Constitution is unambiguous in declaring ‘security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government’, meaning, all other things that a government does are to compliment and complement these two primary purposes. Unfortunately, given the how things have been in Nigeria in recent years, governments have failed phenomenally in their responsibilities as prescribed by the constitution.
“To remedy this, it is incumbent on the government to buckle up. Parts of the way of doing this is to be more decisive in dealing with those apprehended as having hands in banditry.
“A few years ago, when Nigerians were stampeded to register for the National Identification Number (NIN), Bank Verification Number (BVN), as well as registering their telephone numbers and matching some of these numbers, the argument put up was that doing so would make it easier for criminals to be nabbed by security agencies. Years down the line, years after the registrations have taken place and years after virtually every person using or owning telephone number(s) are in the database accessible to the government, criminality and terrorism are not only still with us, they are also festering with unprecedented ferocity.
“The failure to use tracking method to nab criminals, especially those using telephone sets to communicate, is a serious indictment on those who were supposed to include such in their intelligence gathering and criminal fighting strategies.