It made headline information when it was reported that 4 armed males kidnapped the spouse of a retired Assistant Inspector Normal of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, from her residence within the Arepo, Obafemi/Owode Native Authorities Space of Ogun state late final week.
It doesn’t matter that her husband is retired as a result of, at that stage, Odumosu nonetheless enjoys some part of police safety, which can be prolonged to his members of the family.
That these criminals had been capable of break into that safety ring brings to the fore their temerity and brazenness, which should function a problem to the Police and different safety operatives. If such a high-ranking police officer is so susceptible, then it implies that the bizarre citizen surviving every day can solely be attributed to divine intervention.
It’s much more astounding that days after the incident, the Police are nonetheless speaking about efforts to rescue her and interesting to civilians to be vigilant and strengthen safety measures of their numerous locations of domicile. Perhaps they’re ready to be mobilised, as has change into the customized the place law enforcement officials demand hundreds of thousands of Naira for logistics from aggrieved relations earlier than they will begin efforts to trace down the criminals and rescue their victims.
What has change into so disheartening is the effrontery of those parts who keep it up their nefarious actions as if there are not any safety measures able to bringing them beneath management.To worsen the state of affairs, the safety operatives’ perceivable despondency suggests they’ve reached their wits’ finish and have change into incapable of devising strategies of taking over the criminals’ gauntlet.
As a newspaper, we’re reluctant to just accept this case, which explains why we persist in giving the safety companies and their operatives the advantage of the doubt on events when the urchins take the battle to their turf, as was the case in Ogun state not too long ago.
However what occurred within the case of the kidnap of that senior Police officer’s spouse is symptomatic of what has change into so widespread to the purpose that victims of the horrendous acts and their households ignore the safety companies and their operatives once they discover themselves in such awkward conditions by coping with the criminals themselves if solely to expedite the discharge course of.
The ripple impact of the menace of those bandits is that some communities throughout the nation have change into desolate and disadvantaged of life. Throughout the just-concluded festive intervals of Christmas and New 12 months, the cities had been congested as returnees, particularly these from outdoors the nation, most well-liked staying in motels relatively than travelling to their homesteads and risking ending up within the arms of criminals.We’re apprehensive as a result of the safety operatives know these criminals, who function, in some instances, inside the precincts of checkpoints and different supposedly security-deterrent measures. Much more disconcerting, in our opinion, is the perspective of those safety operatives, who embrace the police, the navy, and native vigilantes. There’s a daring choice and eagerness on their half to gather tolls from travellers relatively than guarantee their security.
It’s important to confess that safety companies and their operatives work beneath extreme circumstances, corresponding to inadequate assets that stretch the dedication of a mean safety agent.Nevertheless, it’s also pertinent to emphasize that assets will all the time be inadequate, given different competing calls for. That requires adroitness in managing what is obtainable to realize set targets and meet societal expectations.
That inevitably brings the dialogue to the problem of corruption, which has change into undeniably systemic, starting with the recruiting course of and the deployment of obtainable assets.The Police, for example, can’t, in all good conscience, complain of a manpower scarcity when their ready arms are dedicated to defending Very Vital Personalities (VIPs). The intriguing dimension is that these officers can be found to the very best bidder, whose VIP standing is unsure and who’s out for a show-off.
On this web page, we’ve got identified the inadequacies of the recruiting process, which has change into unpardonably politicised and, in most cases, bypasses the famed strict schedules of the Police excessive command itself as politicians take undue benefit of the lax processes of the Police Service Fee (PSC). The identical can be mentioned of all the safety companies who, in a frenzy to appease their political godfathers and paymasters, throw requirements to the canine and flood the system with candidates of questionable character. Underneath regular circumstances, a lot of the recruits armed and outfitted to guard the residents haven’t any enterprise adorning the uniforms, which sadly licences them to kill.Invariably, we’re persuaded to argue that what’s going on within the nation presently should not be allowed to fester. It’s dangerous sufficient that financial and social life is seemingly being put at abeyance on account of the inanities of in any other case road urchins. It is going to be a tragedy of immense proportion if the nation permits the citizenry to change into vendable objects within the arms of non-state actors who could also be daring the safety companies and their operators to struggle again if they will. We’re attending to that time the place anti-social parts, bandits and kidnappers are starting to inform the remainder of us to just accept them as the brand new regular or go to hell. That could be a brazen pattern that should stay unacceptable.
