Veteran journalist and former presidential aide, Laolu Akande, has called on President Bola Tinubu to declare an all out war against insecurity, the rising cases of kidnapping and every act of criminality in the country.
Akande made the call during the popular TV talk show, “Inside Sources,” in the segment dedicated to his views named ‘My Take’, on Channels TV, on Friday, January 19, 2024.
While at it, Akande also commiserated with Ibadan people in Oyo State over the recent violent blast in the ancient city that caused loss of lives and destruction of property, calling for an urgent arrest of dastard acts in the country.
He wondered how kidnappers would raid an entire community, kidnapped a whole family and kill their firstborn, as they felt the father kept late in paying the ransom demanded.
“We have gotten to the situation where people are now meeting the dastardly demands of criminals just so they can sustain their security. This sounds more like a jungle and this is not a jungle.”
The veteran journalist cautioned that “Time has come to have a special intervention force to deal with this situation, saying, “This is the Federal Republic of Nigeria, where we have the instruments of force and cohesion. Time has come Mr President to declare an all-out war against every act of criminality in this country.”
As he said, “First, I want to condole with the people of Ibadan, Oyo State which is where I come from. On the explosion that occurred earlier this week. We hope that this kind of situation will be avoided in the future. And we send our prayers to all the families and people involved.
“Here is my take for the week. In the FCT earlier recently, there is this story about kidnappers who went into an estate and abducted a family. They later released the father to go feed for ransom. But perhaps because they thought he was delaying, they killed the first daughter of the family. This is so heart-wrenching.”
“For the rising cases of kidnapping and general insecurity, Akande said, “It turns out now that people are coming together online to crowd-source funding for the ransome. If this doesn’t break your heart, I don’t know what else will break your heart.”
“The time has come to have a special intervention force to deal with this situation. The time has come to have a standard operating procedure where there will be a short response time from the security agencies.
Akande, who also called for the effective funding of police and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), charged the Inspector General of Police and NECDC Commandant to rise to the situation and everyone that is involved in the security architecture of this country.
“Time has come to ensure by all means that there is effective funding of the Police and NSCDC especially to deal with what is becoming a troubling phenomenon in our country.
“We trust and believe that Mr President and his aides, the Inspector general of the police and the commandant general of NSCDC will rise to the situation and everyone that is involved in the security architecture of this country.
“We cannot afford to have a situation where this kind of criminality is been encouraged by people who have no other choice but to raise ransome online,” Akande said.
He also queried the former Minister for Communication and Digital Economics, Prof Isa Pantami, on his claim that security agencies are not using the technology that is linked to the NIN to track the criminals, asking, “How is this possible?”
“We hope the security agencies have an explanation for this kind of situation and we are trusting and believing the Federal Government that all of these sad stories will soon become a thing of the past,” Akande concluded.
