Security Brouhaha

A basic aspect of security that the current personnel of the Nigeria Police in general and the Ota Area Command in particular are yet to imbibe is the element of surprise. Anybody whose security instinct has been honed to an appreciable degree would wonder at the ego trip the area command in focus is currently embarking on in its area of coverage.

Let us start from the comic. Recently news, or was it rumour, filtered to Ota that armed robbers were striking in Ilaro, some 25 kilometres away, and the police on duty posts on Idiroko Road, Ota opened gunfire as if they were under mortal attack. Such action borders on crass ignorance, or, in all seriousness, portrays so-called well trained security personnel as clueless under such circumstance. It also connotes sloppiness in the dispensation of serious security apparatus in the sense that such personnel could expend ammunition entrusted to them without reasonable proof.

In the hey day of Sina Rambo, the head of a notorious trans-border robbery gang that operated unchallenged for several years in Lagos and Ogun states, the gang was in the habit of shooting its way commando style through many metropolitan local governments in Lagos State. It would land safely in Ogun State and waltz through the long, smooth Ota–Idiroko international road before making a safe berth in Benin Republic, its home base.

This security challenge refused to abate until the robbery kingpin was arrested in his home country and ferried to Nigeria to face an avalanche of criminal charges the end of which most of the general public could not ascertain.

One particular incident is amusing. The Rambo gang had a field-day in Ikeja, shot its way to Pen Cinema in Agege, and chose the Iju Waterworks Road to exit to Ogun State. The officer in charge of the Olowosokedile Police Post on Iju Road in Lagos, sensing the approach of the gang, picked his official weapon and dashed out of the post to take cover in one of the nearby buildings. No properly groomed security personnel of the military mould would act so cowardly.

For a gang to shoot its way from metropolitan Lagos to its boundary with Ogun speaks of a country with flimsy claim to internal security. Sina Rambo was in control as long as he wished.

The more comic side of the internal security under the watch of the Nigeria Police is currently playing out at the Sango Ota base of an area command. How widespread this display of tomfoolery is, is yet to be ascertained but one could vouchsafe that it is a newfangled method to play to the gallery or dazzle the uninformed. Or how could an area command roll out an armoured tank imprinted with QRS (Quick Response Squad), a copycat of Lagos’ RRS, its patrol vans in the region of six and some cars for the top hierarchy officials, bottling up traffic at its rear, and strolling leisurely from its area office on Abeokuta Road down to Km 6 on Idiroko Expressway, then make a U-turn and damming back traffic on its way back to base. This trend was first noticed some two years ago before it was ostensibly rested. It is not clear whether its resuscitation is as a result of the new assault plan – QRS. It is however important to note that the display has assumed greater pomp and frequency.

What happens after each day’s display? Does the parade of men and weapons translate to the security surveillance of the places, particularly the expressway visited? On the contrary. Rather, as soon as the security men return to the comfort of their station, the area comes under the command of those who have chosen deviance as their norm, whose heart and mind brew trouble and who have made it their resolve to hit the innocent with sledgehammers.

What is the security significance of the area command’s braggadocio? First, it might have been designed to deter the underworld men that the Command has the wherewithal to combat violent crime. Good. A Yoruba adage says the spice with which an old man eats wrapped pap is hidden under the wrap, not visible to the uninitiated. So the police’s battle-readiness should be seen in its ability to forestall, detect crimes and drastically pare down violent and other related offences. But away from the expressway, the residential areas are targets of incessant robbery attacks and these people can not appeal to the security agencies until after their ordeals. And if they attempt to have the incidents recorded, investigating police officers would demand payment for stationery used.

The Scriptures tell of an ancient King of Judah – Hezekiah – who after recovering from a debilitating illness considered it wise to display all in his kingdom – the gold, armoury and the grandeur – to the emissaries of the King of Babylon. Prophet Isaiah pointed out the folly of the king’s action, prophesying that a time would come when the Babylonians would seize such wealth and the children of the king and carry them off to Babylon. The prophecy was fulfilled.

It stands reason on its head for the police to display its hardware in an environment where the firepower and preparedness of the underworld men are patently superior. Doing such in an environment where the hoodlums imbibe and display the vital security strategy of surprise is patently absurd. It is as if the police need to go to the underworld to learn the ropes.

Gone are the days robbers would notify, in writing, their intended victims to prepare and warn about the futility of involving the security apparatus. The wicked men of the underworld today hatch their anti-social plans in the recesses of their hideouts, execute them in a jiffy, spilling blood, including that of security men, and leaving behind pains and anguish. The police would do well to fish out these social deviants in their incubators.

The miscreants abound at every corner in Ota and Lagos, setting up illegal road blocks, extorting money from motorists of all hue. They are at every bus stop, too, milking commercial bus operators to boot. The law empowers the police to tackle these deviants and all they need is the resolve to stand up to their moneybag sponsors.

It is clear that the police cannot handle violent crimes as their training and briefs do not support such weighty responsibility. A middle-of-the-road approach needs be adopted. A special internal security force in the fashion of the Joint Task Force, JTF, needs be crafted to combat the hoodlums. JTF is currently slugging it out with the Boko Haram insurgency. The new force should be established through an Act of parliament. It should be independent of the police force and the Nigerian Army and its head should be of the status of the Inspector-General and Chief of Army Staff. Its personnel should be drawn, at the initial stage, from the army and valiant mobile policemen. Special training programme should be designed to give the personnel the instinct of a mad dog.

Soldiers are by training killers, not of animals but humans. Police is for peace and its personnel are not psyched to withstand the rigours of violence. They can go underground to investigate but not to confront armed hoodlums. Therefore, the new force should lean more towards the military, though with a sprinkle of civil conduct. With such approach, the police will settle down to the job they are better able to perform. Meanwhile, let the comic display by the Ota Area Command be halted forthwith. It is better halted.

— Akin Owolabi