Insecurity: Ex-AIG Wants Security Education in School Curriculum

Retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG), Felix Ogbaudu, has called for review of school curriculum at all levels of education to include security education.
Ogbaudu in an interview with The Tide’s source in Abuja said the review had become imperative in view of the level of insecurity in Nigeria.
He said with the new dimension to insecurity in Nigeria in recent times, security matters could no longer be left solely in the hands of security agencies.
According to him, the insurgent tactics being deployed by the enemies of state was a wakeup call to sensitise the public on how to identify sinister moves in their communities.
Another benefit of making security education part of primary, secondary and tertiary institutions’ curricular, he explained, is learning skills on how to report criminal activities to security agencies among others.
“I am suggesting that we include security education in school curriculum from primary, secondary and tertiary levels.
“This is to teach our children their dos and don’ts in terms of security because it is important for them to know what to do and what not to do at a given time.
“They should also be taught to see something and say something, and I want to add, if you hear something say something, but what you hear you must verify,” he said.
On illegal firearm possession, he said drastic action must be taken to mop up such arms because of the danger they pose to the society.
“I am appealing to government to sensitise members of the public using all avenues including print and electronic media, mosques, churches, town criers in the local communities and all of that.
“The message should be that anyone in possession of an illegal firearm should surrender it to an unidentified location.
“Once the instruction is given, a timeframe of six months should be given and there should be a warning that at the expiration of six months anybody arrested with firearm that is illegal will face death penalty.
“That means possession of illegal firearm will be a capital offence,” he said.He said once the window for mop up is over, the National Assembly should enact a law making possession of illegal firearm a capital offence with strict liability offence.
According to him, once the law is enacted and it comes into effect, people should be sensitised to be careful in assisting people with luggage to avoid being implicated.
Ogbaudu called for an amendment to the section of the Constitution that provides for presumption of innocence.
He said the amendment should be “except caught in the act”.
“Being caught in the act is enough evidence to prosecute an offender.
“For instance, someone caught shooting at another person should not be presumed innocent because such a person was caught in the act.

“Unfortunately lawyers are not helping matters.

“Prof. Itse Sagay said this a long time ago that lawyers are not helping matters because they always fail to tell clients the truth.

“If your case is bad, tell your clients what the provisions of the law say about their case even when it will not be favourable to them not because they are going to be paid millions.

“That is why you see that some matters that start in Magistrate Court, go to Court of Appeal, down to Supreme Court and in some cases linger beyond 20 years,” he said.