The specter of Chibok girls and horrors of Boko Haram terrorism popped up recently in the minds of everyone in Ikorodu between Monday, February 29, and Saturday, March 5, 2016 as the nation searched desperately for three secondary school girls, kidnapped at night by gunmen in Ikorodu, Lagos State, from their boarding school as they were reading in their classroom.
The outcry reached hysteric level because the incident came soon after two worrisome bank robberies last year, in which the criminals escaped through the lagoon by speedboats; the brutal killing of DSS and other security personnel by suspected oil bunkerers and pipeline vandals, and lastly to cap the year, the mysterious murder of eight young ladies, whose bodies were discovered in two separate locations in Central Ikorodu town.
These and the bloody clashes between cult groups and other deadly operations in the division put Ikorodu in bad public light, creating the ugly impression that this part of Lagos Sate had turned into another Borno State.
The kidnapping of three (3) SS2 girls from Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary, Ikorodu, ruffled the entire Lagos State and created not only ripples across the nation but great provocation and invocations.
Timilehin Olosa, Tofunmi Popoola and Deborah Akinayo were in a prep class by 9:30p.m in their boarding school when abductors struck and re-enacted the ghost and nightmares of Chibok.
About 500 security operative swung into action to rescue the girls and fish out their captors. Not wanting a repeat of the Chibok experience, where there were doubt about the reality or not of the abductions, the Deputy Governor of Lagos State visited the school the following day. While Governor Ambode gave marching orders for the rescue of the girls, the Ayangbure of Ikorodu, Oba Kabiru Shotobi accompanied by other traditional rulers in the division including the Ranodu of Imota, Oba Ajibade Agoro, visited the school to press home the solidarity to fight these wicked criminals and spoilers of Ikorodu’s reputation.
Christian, Muslims, even traditional worshippers joined the school authorities and parents of the abducted girls to pray and fast in various congregations. Worshippers prayed that God should put confusion into the camp of the abductors and turn all their counsel into foolishness. And the Almighty God answered the fervent prayers of Ven. Olusi and other righteous Nigerians. There was a split in the enemy camp and the girls were not only free, some of the kidnappers were nabbed by security men.
Thus, the swift response and collective approach to the abduction made the difference. We even heard that a boy showed heroic valor the night of the abduction when he confronted the assailants, battled with them bare fisted like David in the bible and secured the release of what would have been the 4th girl victim that night of the incident.
This is the crux of this editorial. If the state or nation had slumbered or vacillated over this matter without ambitiously confronting the challenge, it would have encouraged more abductions and depressed the morale of parents, students, teachers, the academic communities and the nation as a whole while gingering more daring raids by these bad elements. The response was swift, bold, collective and penetrative. The result is this victory the nation is celebrating and wishing that it could be replicated in Chibok.
It is now obvious that criminals are exploiting the vast open and farm lands in Ikorodu as well as the easy get away cracks and bodies of water (lagoons and rivers) hence the need for radical strategies to combat these elements.
The time has come to deploy drones and bail them up with the helicopter (gunship) acquired by Ambode’s government to patrol regularly the Ikorodu, Epe and Lagos Lagoon axis.
The time has come to re-introduce public executions and to make kidnapping (abductions) an offence punishable by death because it is impossible to police all schools and all soft targets., The time has also come to hold community leaders, traditional rulers, councilors, Omo-oniles/Ajagungbales accountable for security lapses or breaches in their area.
It is now imperative that everybody must be security conscious and not pretend to be unconcerned about what goes around us. These kidnappers are no ghosts. They use farms, houses, complete and uncompleted buildings, cars and vehicles all of us can identify or recognize. Every one ought to be so security conscious that we all become informants to genuine security outfits.
The time has come to also involve the telecom service providers to help in the ‘Snowdon’ kind of operations (eavesdropping), not for any other purpose but for security intelligence. To monitor evil communications.
The need for surveillance cameras and efforts on biometric data basing and collection cannot be over emphasized. We should not be talking about launching two new satellites into space (orbit), when we cannot provide six hours of electricity daily to all Nigerians.
We should not be talking about atomic bomb and atomic energy research, when we cannot refine simple crude oil here and use contemporary technology to keep surveillance on our oil pipelines, electric power lines and borders because monies voted for such projects navigate to individual pockets as a waste.
About this time in 2012, Oriwu Sun made a front page editorial on the need for a security Trust Fund. This came in the wake of barbaric discoveries around Imota, Gberigbe, Igbokuta axis, where policemen discovered underground ritual factory in Imota. A trust fund for security in Ikorodu will complement the robust investment, which Ambode’s government has made in recent months to secure lives and property of Lagos residents.
Because cultists, Ajagbungbales, robbers murderers (ritualists) and now kidnappers have painted Ikorodu division in bad colours and light, there is need for radical measures to upgrade safety measures in this vulnerable environment, which bad elements are steadily exploiting.
Provision of a trust fund will beef up Onyabo, Neighbourhood watch police, RRS and other security outfits in this division and make every farmer, trader, worker and resident a co-stakeholder in securing this place.
With the growth in population and spread of development in Ikorodu division, it is noteworthy that a commensurate effort must be made to make the town secure and conducive for the much envisaged status as a component of a mega city.