Curtailing Attacks on Communities

Penultimate week’s violent attack on a border community between Lagos and Ogun States by petroleum pipeline vandals in which 14 people were killed again spawned the nagging issue of insecurity across the country.

The latest terror unleashed on Erekomuti/ Ita-Oluwo Area in Ikorodu, Lagos and Owode/Ofada, Ogun queried the ability of security agents to respond to emergency security breaches.

An armed robbery attack on a filling station located in the axis led to the death of four suspected vandals when operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) stormed the area to fish out the bandits on Friday June 17, 2016.

A reprisal attack on defenceless residents the following week by suspected pipeline vandals turned the community into a theatre of war and 10 lives were lost. The attackers targeted a category of residents on their hit list whom they believed invited SARS.

Some traumatised residents fled the community and vowed not to return. This was another act of brazen criminality like several others in recent times. The atrocities of marauding herdsmen in Benue and Enugu States that claimed many lives are still fresh. Perpetrators of the heinous crimes remain at large.

The Nigerian Police, the Directorate of State Services (DSS), the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and other federal law enforcement agencies seem unable to protect the common citizenry anymore. Inadequate policing and inability of security agents to engage in intelligence gathering and respond swiftly to distress calls are responsible for such incidents.

The Lagos/Ogun killings were carried out from late Thursday night till the early hours of Friday unchallenged. The situation has brought the imperative of State Police to the front burner again. The exploding crime index all over the country seriously calls for a drastic restructuring of our security system to take policing and protection of the people closer to the grassroots.

There is no way the push to revamp the economy can work without law and order being assured. No investment, whether local or foreign, can take place under this volatile atmosphere.

We call on all security agencies to wake up and do their jobs. Criminals and desperados are overrunning our communities, killing people and destroying property at will. Anarchy seems to be taking over. We call on the Minister of the Interior, retired Lt Gen Abdulrahman Danbazzau, to rise beyond mere rhetoric and secure our nation’s interior.

There should be a regular mopping up of arms in circulation, and more thorough searches should be conducted at the check points to curtail the circulation of arms and ammunition. The Federal Government should encourage local and community leaders to join hands with the law enforcement agencies to bring peace, law and order to the grassroots