Ban On Okada And Violent Crimes

The near-frequent and harrowing security
breaches in parts of Rivers State and their
attendant loss of human lives, last week Sunday, may have necessitated the restriction of commercial motor cyclists in four local government areas, from 5 pm to 8 am. The 15 hour restriction which affected major flash points like Abua/Odual, Ahoada East, Ahoada West and Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni LGAs, is expected to check the use of ‘Okada’ by cult gangs and other gunmen.
In the last few months, senseless blood-letting, kidnappings and street violence peaked in some Local Government Areas of Rivers State, leaving government with no other choice than come up with measures to check the trend including the ban on the use of Okada in affected Local Government Areas.
Welcome as the decision might be, it is not enough. It is infact, an indictment of the security community that cult activities could be allowed to assume such dangerous heights as to becoming a danger to the larger society. In a society where there is government order and peace cannot be compromised.
More disturbing is the fact that the once peaceful rural communities have been turned into theatres of terror and war, forcing helpless people to flee their homes. The common denominator in such crimes is the use of arms on defenceless people and the transformation of lawless youths into gang-lords.
With such enablers, they kidnap, maim, rob and kill perceived opponents with little or no response from the security community, whose primary responsibility it is to ensure the safety of the citizenry and property. In spite of tremendous support the police get from Federal, State, Local Governments and indeed non-governmental donor agencies, the security situation remains the same.
There is always a story of kidnap, armed robbery, mass assassination and sporadic shooting by suspected cultists without the equal response by the security community. That has further emboldened the gunmen who are more brazen in their attacks, to such extents that rural economies in the affected areas are virtually grounded; residents flee their homes in fear and leave the communities at the mercy of the armed invaders.
This is no longer acceptable. We expect the security agencies, especially the various arms of the police to brace-up for the challenge, be on top of the game, using dependable intelligence gathering technics to fish out the culprits and bring them to book. It is indeed unfortunate that kidnapping still remains a lucrative business in spite of the inhibitive laws enacted to check the crime.
This is partly because no successful conviction has been secured with the attendant forfeiture of property and accruing jail terms. By now, we expect the security community to devise ways and means of checking kidnappers, using hi-tech tracking devices that will make kidnapping less glamorous and profitable.
Without such proactive steps, necessary to track, apprehend and successfully prosecute and convict, the criminals would always remain steps ahead of the security agencies. Need we add that the greatest incentive to crime is the hope of escaping punishment?
We think that the time is long overdue for the State Government and indeed the security community to re-strategise, review the security system, be more proactive, build confidence in the citizenry to earn their trust and support and take the battle to the criminals. A situation whereby young men and women would constitute themselves into terror gangs, impose alternative governments in communities and determine the fortunes of the people cannot be defended by the security agencies.
By now, we expect that ring leaders, financiers and sponsors of such cult gangs would have been identified. This is because; no cult group can long survive without the support and protection of powerful people in society and even politics. The new battle should focus on such fronts, if we are to make any meaningful success.
With the National and State Assemblies re-run elections underway, in the State, unless more proactive steps are taken to check the excesses of these trigger-happy hoodlums, violence and insecurity would surely increase and pose even greater danger to human lives and property.
We expect that the restrictions, recently imposed on motor cyclists in some parts of the State, would not, like the earlier bans, be observed in the breach. Even with the ban on Okada in Port Harcourt, plain cloth police men went about at night with bikes, creating the loophole for criminals to join in the disobedience. This time around, such loopholes must be blocked for the restrictions to make meaning.
At a time of crippling economic challenges, when States are jealously preserving their priced heritage and infrastructure, and at the same time tinkering on diversification, Rivers State cannot allow the informal but robust rural economies to collapse on account of poor policing.