By Bukola Olamona & Saheed Ibrahim
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Worried by worsening criminality in the country, security experts have called for National Security summit.
According to them, the summit will help professionals and security personnel find lasting solution to the menace.
They also called for total overhauling of security apparatus and the judiciary to ensure speedy trial and prosecution of criminal cases.
A retired Police Commissioner , Chief Samuel Adetuyi who spoke with The Hope said the nation’s judicial system should be made to work so that criminals are speedily punished, adding that delayed justice usually encourages crime to thrive.
He stressed the need for a renewed training and capacity building for security agents.
Also, a former British Intelligence officer, Mr Olumoranti Okunola suggested capacity enhancement for security agencies and beefing up of security at every institution of learning in the country.
He recommended that government must put structures in place, whereby kidnappers will not be able to operate freely again.
He posited that officers in the anti-kidnapping unit of the Nigeria Police must be retrained while offenders must be speedily tried and punished if found guilty and that the judiciary must be sanitised.
“I know in so many places we have anti-kidnapping squad but the training of these officers is not strong enough. They have to train strong anti-kidnapping squad.
“You have to monitor the activities of the police and there should be serious punishment for offenders which will serve as a to others.
Okunola also supported the idea that a special court should be established to address kidnapping cases in order to give speedy judgement in such cases.
“When these are done in Nigeria, prospective kidnappers will sit tight, that is why there are perpetrators of kidnapping everywhere because they know that the judiciary is corrupt,” he added .
He further recommended that security must be beefed up at every academic institution in the country as kidnappers had started targeting students while cultism among students.
In his own recommendation, the Ondo State Vigilante Commander, Dr Williams Akinwumi posited that government must be serious at combating the scourge affecting the country.
Akinwumi, suggested that the state government must create a platform to rub minds with security experts, who are highly experienced and knowledgeable about security in the state.
With this, the state government would develop better strategies to address insecurity in the state.
Away from putting the whole responsibilities on the government, an elder state man, Chief Femi Aluko called on parents to take proper care of their wards.
According to him, every criminal is a product of a family, and parents these days have shirked their responsibilities, saying that the moment parents do what is expected of them, crime will reduce.
Aluko noted that government had bitten more than it can chew in the area of security and it had become necessary for every member of the society to be vigilant and be security conscious, emphasising that if every child is properly taken care of, insecurity will not be an issue in the society.