By Theo Adebowale

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Last week was a period the enemy had set apart for battle. The adversary had gotten his weapons ready. It succeeded in removing the facebook account from the legitimate owner, and decided to monitor crime and criminality. What a simple devise to tarnish the image of a radical at 60. General Raji Razaq in those days was amazed at Alao Aka Basorun, who at age 50 was still referred to as a radical! It was in the days of 1, 2, 3, 4…both of you come here. The general has already gone for higher education and must have changed some of his views. How time changes?
There was a group of ‘siddon look.’ They take their time before responding to situations. Members of this group may be likened to those Nigerians that are swift to hear but slow to respond. Hackers have nothing to fear when they are interested’ in a matter. Then the combative, they are attracted to be battle in the days of vengeance. Every day is for the hacker, but there is a day of vengeance. They took time to reach the chief hacker to confirm his status.
They went further to investigate the depth of hack. They went to action first, to review the task and to departmentalize, or if you like categorize it. There was publicity and propaganda it was using the internet, weapon of the fraudster to expose him (them). The summary of their assignment was. This account has been hacked, keep off. Some of those very active in this category have a background in the social sciences. Next was those armed with cudgels and even weapons of mass destruction. Our investigation shows that the department was headed by a prominent Nollywood actress.
She demonstrated that the weapons of warfare against a cyber criminal is more than spiritual to the pulling down of courage to sustain their impunity. With professional use of language and application of its potential, the coward in them began to manifest. If it were a solid object, they would have gone to Ayelala to make restitution. But it was an invisible object, a taboo. Ordinary facebook account of an ordinary teacher. They caught up with his conscience, at a tight corner. Now suffocating, sweating profusely, all he could wish for was rescue. For real, he could see pestles, bow and arrows, dane guns, cudgels and handcuffs. It was a day of vengeance. He was exhausted and so prayed God to spared him the cup of poison. His pursuers came at the nick of time. The account was recovered from the imposter. It was restored to the owner.
It was a day of accident. We do not hear much from the police these days because God has been kind to us, among other things, to escape. Unfortunately, poor judgement can prevail once in a while, it is at such a time we appreciate the place of professional police personnel.
They guide us on expression of rights and encourage us to emphasise our error so that time could be spared on more profitable business. And that is the essence of division of work as adopted in days of recovery of the facebook account. A crop of policemen friendly citizens including a pastor simply and sincerely interested in maintaining law and order, unlike those that violate the rules, granting bail for a fee or taking actions that suggest, that the police are not your friends have a good share of the problem bedeviling our system. Now it is in our place to report when we meet a group that is characteristically different from the general ones we sometimes hear about.
We need therefore even to do self examination, not only of others. We may be carried away in a phony self justification for example when we make promises that are impossible in order to enjoy acceptance that could not be sustained. We may be saving our land from unnecessary waste and crime if only we earn respect through self respect. That took us to a 73-years-old man, who claimed to be 65, eagle-eyed policemen easily spot such untruths. The combined efforts of childhood friends, family records and school reports might not be sufficient as testimony in his favour.
Enemies on the internet have started to meet the Waterloo from combined efforts of volunteers other than security agencies, men and women who know the truth and decide to insist on the truth were able to skin a dangerous reptile to vomit a stolen prey in the secret place of wickedness, that it could be recovered under the shadow of the Almighty. With our new crop of law enforcement agencies, following #EndSARS era, there is a strong window of opportunities only responsible citizenry can open and ensure ventilation. It was opened in Maiduguri last year when the security forces seemed to have been overwhelmed. Young men and women rose against bandits and kidnappers. They encouraged themselves, pursued and overtook. The feat was repeated on the social media. Security is strengthened and attained when it becomes everybody’s business.