File: The police on duty

A public affairs analyst, Dr Olatunde Amusat, has called on security agencies to adopt local solution to the myriads of security challenges facing the country.

He made the call on Wednesday in Ibadan during the maiden memorial lecture in honour of late federal lawmaker, Temitope Olatoye, who represented Lagelu/Akinyele Constituency in the House of Representatives.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the late Olatoye, popularly known as `Sugar’ was assassinated on Saturday, March 9 at Lalupon area of Ibadan during the governorship and House of Assembly elections.

NAN reports that the lecture, attended by political associates, politicians, friends, beneficiaries and family members of the deceased, was part of activities lined up for the burial of the late Olatoye.

Amusat in his lecture entitled,` ‘Sugar’s Death and the Challenges of Leadership Recruitment Process: Matters Arising’ noted that crime was local and could be tackled with local solutions.

He noted that one of the reasons fighting crimes had not been effective in the communities was the obvious denial of the role and impact of community policing.

The public analyst said that community policing allowed people who understood the local environment to participate and take charge of the security responsibilities.

Amusat wondered why Olatoye was killed at the same axis where some notable Nigerians including the former Head of State, Gen Agunyi Ironsi and Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, were killed.

“Lalupon is beginning to gain notoriety, with due respect, as an axis of death. When you interrogate history, this was the same place some notable Nigerians were killed.

“A visiting military head of state in the person of late Gen. Agunyi Ironsi and his host late Col Adekunle Fajuyi, were both taken into the bush in Lalupon axis and shot.

“And when you do thorough profiling of series of assassinations that have occurred along that axis, you will begin to have a rethink of why Lalupon.

“In my presentation, I must have said why Lalupon more than ten times. Why Lalupon is instructive and very important.

“It is important to the extent that a few years ago, a serving federal legislator was hacked down in the Lalupon axis, just three months into his tenure.

“And years after, another serving federal lawmaker in the person of late Olatoye’s convoy was ambushed and brutally murdered three months to the expiration of his four-year mandate.

“As an academic, I am trying to interrogate and see whether there is a cosmic nexus that could be established between the two. The question still remains…Lalupon again and why Lalupon,’’ he said.

He stressed the need for community policing as a way of tackling the series of killings in various places across the country.

Amusat said that Nigerians had for decades lived in denial as a people, saying it was difficult for an Igbo-born security agent to be appointed a DPO in Ibadan and function effectively on a strange terrain.

“Community policing is the way out and some people are shy about the issue. I think we are sitting on a keg of gun powder.

“ I am not an alarmist and I am not pressing the panic button, but those people in the position of authority should be alive to their responsibilities,’’ he said.

He narrated his recent ordeal in the hands of kidnappers, adding he was abducted for six days which was exactly 143 hours and 30 minutes.

“I should know because I was a victim of kidnap. I was with my abductors for six days, exactly 143 hours 30 minutes and I wrote an article to narrate my ordeal.

“These people didn’t know me, they knew nothing about me. I was just kidnapped. If care is not taken, the migration from the Sahel is moving gradually into the Southwest and something must be done.

“ I feel we should organize and stop agonising and the time to do that is now. Now to the extents that delay is dangerous. Nigeria can be re-invented.

“Nigeria is not beyond redemption but for it to be reinvented, it has to be re-negotiated,’’ he said.

Mr Dotun Olatoye, the youngest brother of the deceased who spoke on behalf of the family, said the occasion was not to weep, but to celebrate the life and impact of the deceased on people around him.

He described his late brother as an `accidental selfless public service holder’ who gave his best to empower people around him.

NAN reports that a lying-in- state ceremony for the deceased at the Oyo State House of Assembly holds on Thursday.