THE Osun State police command recently discovered the decomposing body of an aged landlord in Akisa forest in the state five days after he went missing. The landlord, Oladepo Asaolu, from Ora-Igbomina in Ifedayo Local Government Area of the state was killed after allegedly being sold by one of his tenants for N1 million. He was reportedly picked up by an unknown okada rider and was never seen alive again. In a statement issued in Osogbo, the state capital, on October 11, the Police Public Relations Officer, Yemisi Opalola, confirmed the development. He said: “It is true that the man’s decomposing corpse was found in the bush. I gathered that his tenant, an indigene of Osan community close to Ora-Igbomina, sold him to kidnappers at the rate of N1 million. Meanwhile, his abductors have been arrested. The four of them are currently in police net.”
This is definitely an unfortunate incident that speaks volumes about the erosion of mutual trust among citizens in this country. Ordinarily, Ora-Igbomina is a closely-knit community where conservative values hold a pride of place, but the times are changing, and people are being driven by desperation to commit mindless crimes. From rural to urban areas, and from schools to religious centres, there is no place that is safe in the country anymore. That being the case, these are not the days when anyone can utter the proverbial expression to the effect that one cannot suffer a broken neck in one’s home: the truth is that death and destruction can visit anyone at any time and anywhere. If there is no place that is sacred, it follows that crimes against humanity can happen at anytime.
To be sure, it is really disturbing that places that were hitherto thought to be peaceful and secure have become nests of criminals. To think that, still smarting from the terrorism by “unknown gunmen,” the country may now have to contend with the ugly spectre of “unknown bikemen”! That is what you get when society’s moral codes disappear amid the craze for fast, mysterious wealth that is celebrated by the society which should be asking probing questions. The Ora-Igbomina story certainly speaks to the level of depravity in the land and the uncanny desire for and pursuit of wealth and riches through any means. For what kind of tenant would want N1 million at the expense of the life of his/her landlord? Why are Nigerians now so beholden to the pursuit of riches even at the expense of lives?
It is a no-brainer that if the Nigerian society is to regain at least a modicum of sanity, then the celebration of sudden wealth has to stop. As long as criminals expect veneration from the society when they commit crimes, they will not cease and desist from their pernicious ways. Time was in this country when ex-convicts hardly dared to put in an appearance at public events; today, even without the slightest shred of evidence that they have turned a new leaf, they can expect applause as long as they have money. The desperation for quick wealth has reached such an alarming level that shedding human blood to make money is now routine.
The reality is not just about declining morals; it is also about the declining capacity of the government to protect citizens and ensure that brigands do not get away with criminal escapades. The tenant here would have thought twice about the criminal enterprise he was contemplating if he was sure that he would not get away with it in view of the overwhelming demonstration of governmental preparedness to prevent crime and deal with all criminals according to the provisions of the law. The government has to up its ante in checking and preventing crime in the country even as there is a need to undertake massive reorientation of Nigerians against illicit pursuit of riches. The tenant here obviously deserves to be given just his deserts for his crime so that others can learn that crime does not pay in Nigeria, and is not an acceptable road to riches. The tenant from hell must, together with his accomplices, be treated like the betrayer and murderer that he is.
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