Olasehinde Adeseko is a prominent legal practitioner in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital. He posited in this interview with our JUDICIARY CORRESPONDENT, KAYODE ADEOTI, that establishment of state police will help address the incessant killings of innocent souls across the country among other sundry issues. Except:
Everything borders on leadership. During the former President, Goodluck Jonathan’s tenure, when his people were vandalising pipeline, leaders from the South/South called perpetrators of the acts to order, and it stopped. According to information, the killings from different parts of the country are been perpetrated by herdsmen and our president is equally a Fulani man, I think there should be a language they can use to communicate to each other so that the dastard act can stop and his administration will not be remembered for shedding innocent bloods, or causing atrocities. What happened in Jos, Plateau State recently, to some people is politics playing out, to me, it’s more than that. Some persons also hold the view that it’s religiously inclined, some others also maintained that the killings were necessitated because some set of groups or persons want to wipe out Christians from that region. Some hold the belief that what Usman Danfodio could not achieve during the Jihad war, must be actualised now. However, they feel that South/South South/West and South/East should first be penetrated. Another dimension to it was that probably Buhari never believed he could win the 2015 election. It was rumoured that these Fulani were dispersed into every part of the country to unleash terror if he lost in the poll. And after the election, these people couldn’t be controlled again even with the fact that they won in the poll. No law that could be set to curb the killing again because the law is there already. In the Plateau killings, there was an attack for number of hours without the presence of the police to arrest the situation. The question is, are there no police in those areas.
…it was said that police failed to arrest the situation because there was no order to do so from the headquarters, this scenario has made many Nigerians to call for state police, what is your take on this?
It is not now that the agitation for the state police started, South/West has long demanded for it. It’s either state or community police, it has its advantage. With state police, whenever there is crime, they will be able to know who committed it. Apprehending offenders will also be easy because they speak the same language, not in a situation as we have it now that an Hausa man will be posted to Ekiti State where he doesn’t even understand their language. They will not be looking for an interpreter to write statement. The only shortcoming is the fear that it may be abused by the state government. The state government, would they not be influencing the force to their favours? Notwithstanding, I believe state police is still the best to manage this prevailing crisis. If they want to recruit they should do so within the locality where they will discharge their duties.
There have been complaints that F-SARs are misbehaving, extorting money from innocent persons, especially students, will you join the calls for the eradication of this department of the police…?
Honestly, I know police as an institution, we cannot rule out the fact that we need F-SARs department in the institution. The worrisome thing is that F-SARs is being greatly abused. Even in Ilorin here, we heard of how they do invade students’ privacy at Tanke area, tagging some students ‘yahoo boys’ and forcing money out of them. People are been detailed illegally by these people. But we thank God for the kind of Commissioner of Police we have, he’s a person I have met personally and to the best of knowledge, he’s doing a lot of work to ensure sanity at all levels in the state. There was a time he released his number to members of the public and asked them to call him whenever the need arise.
