Plateau killings underscore call for state policing – security experts

Insecurity, in the Plateau State, has been blamed on the lack of deterrence that has trailed the various attacks in the state, security experts have said.

The duo of Barrister, Felix Ogbaudu and Mr Onyekachi Adejoya, former Assistant Police Commissioner (ACP) and security consultant respectively, said Nigeria must serve deterrence, to criminally minded individuals and groups to secure the nation in the locality.

They maintained, that local solution, should be seen to be executed in the environment where such criminal acts were perpetrated through systems owned by the people in this case state police.

Both men were guests on a Channels television programme monitored by our correspondent.

Tribune Online had reported the attack on a convoy of busses travelling back from Bauchi to Ikare, in Ondo State, at the Dakun-biyu road in Jos North, Plateau State, leading to the death of scores of persons and a consequent reprisal attack in the state capital, on Sunday

Mr Ogbaudu pointed out that in spite of the several security presences in the Plateau, these criminals carry out their nefarious activities when the security relaxes its operation as the case has been with Operation Safe Haven in the Plateau.

He said a system overhaul was imminent. “Our biggest challenge in this country is that we have failed to prioritise security. I have said repeatedly, that in the absence of security, no form of human endeavour takes place, be it social or economic nothing, so we must rejig the security structure.”

Adekoya who went down memory lane in the Plateau State to buttress his point and said that investigative panels set up to unravel cases over ten years ago have failed to yield results and meted out the penalty to defaulting person or persons.

Instead, it has emboldened the perpetrators, he cited examples of the repeated narratives of injustices occasioned by lack of local police.

He said, “The way forward is state policing, until we do state police and ensure deterrence will people become law-abiding knowing that the consequence of their action will be meted out to them.”

He said “The 500 people killed 10 years ago, look at the statement of the government, an investigation is set up and the perpetrators will be brought to book.

“Three years ago about 87 people, an investigation will set up and the perpetrators will be brought to book so on and so forth.

“What happened in Bassa happened in the late hours of the night. What was the response, what was the structure on the ground, was it adequately resourced?

He drew a correlation of the incident in Bassa to Lagos some years ago and explained the failure of the Nigerian police to support the state and get local solution to a security problem.

“Let me use Lagos for example when Babatunde Fashola was the governor, he went on to say in policing, if we do not have a criminal database, how can we quickly profile certain people and address the issues, isolate the person in the event of a likely crisis may be of more turbulence around the actors?

“Let us have a criminal database, money was spent, systems were deployed to the police stations for the police to captures on the first line basis data of suspects can be captured so that the state can have its own database, the police didn’t comply because it is a federal institution.

“What can the Plateau State Governor do in the true sense of it when at the security council meeting it has read the DSS report and have agreed on what to do and deployed vehicles, Bassa attacks happened? He asked.

The Saturday incident, left over 20 persons dead immediately while scores more death were recorded following the Sunday morning attack in the state capital.

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Plateau killings underscore call for state policing – security experts

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