Ronke Adeyemi is one of the prominent female legal practitioners who pitched her tent in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital. She speaks with our Judiciary Correspondent, KAYODE ADEOTI on the spate of insecurity in our state among other sundry issues. Excepts:
Since armed robbers killed scores of people including police officers in Offa, Kwara State recently, members of the society have been blaming the state government for failing to put necessary cautions in place, what is your position on this or would you suggest enactment of certain laws to halt reoccurrence of such menace?
We have more than enough laws to cover such occurrences, it’s a criminal act, nobody expected it will happen and that’s why police have set up a big man hurt for the perpetrators. What is paramount now is how to ensure a way that will make government seat up. We have constitution that guarantees right to life and we also laws that says government must provide security, social amenities and the likes but if government says, there is no money for the provision of all that, there is nothing one can do about it. All these rights are called non justifiable because nobody can sue government for it if its fails to provide the aforementioned. Honestly, there is no where you can sue government in the world for armed robbers attack. We understand that every month we have security votes, maybe we need laws that will compel the governor to tell us what he’s doing with our security votes. In local government, we need laws that will compel chairmen to give account of money that is coming into the council, how it’s been expended.
Recently, there was a clamour for where the looted money recovered from the past government officials are and what government intend to do with the fund, can you put things in the right perspectives on this issue?
Unfortunately, I don’t know how much has been recovered, and what government intend to do with it. Maybe they will want to apply it on security and electricity. We will continue to have challenges if we don’t have electricity. Because our CCTV cameras will not be powered without light and of course, will make some evil doers perpetrates their act and go scot free. It’s not that those in advanced countries are not criminally minded, but they don’t indulge in criminal act because they know that chances that they will be caught and punished is 90 per cent. In Nigeria, the chances of being caught is 40 per cent, and the chances of being punished, is 20 per cent. That’s why many people are so mindless in going into crime in Nigeria, if 10 people commit crime, only 2 may suffer for it. That is the problem. Government can published how much has been recovered and also find a way of taking care of the saboteurs, the corruption is too much in this country, it is ruining every sector and it has trickled down even to the children. When you tell a child to do something, he will say, ‘give me money first’. I will also suggest that the looted money recovered should be used solely on security.
Recently, there seems to be an increase in domestic violence, maltreatment and the likes in our society, as the onetime FIDA chairperson, Ikorin branch, how do think this could be better addressed?
On the part of Kwara judiciary, we have a family court where issues related to this are heard. It’s not a conventional open court, we have people there who look at issues holistically and find a way of mending it. But two things are responsible for this menace, the first is internet, people watch a lot of depraving things on it and they want to try it. There are lots of violence, sexual activities on it and young minds are easy to control. Imaging, a two years old who has known what sex is all about because she watch it on net. Another problem we have is that our people don’t speak out so that the perpetrator could be punished, a daughter is raped but the mother kept quiet claiming it’s an embarrassment on the girl…
