By Edun Abdullahi, Ojelade Olaseni and Airaoje Oluwaseun
Interview with the Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Abimbola Oyeyemi on preparation of the Police towards the 2023 General Election.
For the purpose of clarity, Can you please tell us your name ?
My name is Abimbola Oyeyemi, Police Public Relation Officer, Ogun State Police Command.
Election is fast approaching and we have been seeing traces of registrations and primary elections what does it mean to the police? Does it add to their burden?
I can not say it add to the burden and I can not say it will not because it will give us extra work, in the sense that there’s going be electioneering campaign as we can all see that the primary election is all over now, so we need to work extra during the primaries. The venue of the primary has to be properly policed to prevent any sort of violence and to ensure that the conduct of the election is free, fair and credible. When the election proper comes to electioneering campaign its our duty to ensure that those who are attending the campaign, nothing happen to them, any form of thuggery or gangsterism has to be checkmated by the police and there might be a situation where three or four parties are having campaigns the same day, in the same state but different venue. If a political party is having campaign in Abeokuta, another one is happening in Ijebu, another one in Sango Ota and another one is having in Ilaro, we have to police all those areas properly, that is why I said we can not say its going to be an additional work but it is what we have been used to, our duty is protection of lives and property and we should be carrying out the duties from time to time regardless of whether there’s elections or no election such duty we are bound to carry it out.
Concerning your response you said if there’s election in Sango Ota, Abeokuta and the rest, how are we going to ensure that the people are not under policed?
It is only a lazy man that will be blaming his tools for his poor performance, it is that we have shortage of manpower but the little we have, we have to make judicious use of it, all these areas that I mentioned, is there any place we don’t have police presence, is there any of those places police are not patrolling, so we are going to make do with our little resources to ensure that the duty of lives and property protection is carried out.
Sir, What are you doing to ensure a safer Ogun State between now and next year when the election proper begins?
It is not going to be between now and next year, it is going to be before, during and after the election. It is our duty, we must ensure a safer Ogun State and we have been doing that right from time immemorial, we have been doing that from time to time, so the issue of how we are going to do it between now and the election period doesn’t arise because it is our duty, it is what we have been doing, it is what we are been paid for, it is the job assigned to us. The duty of security agencies, the security business is not for the police alone, it is the duty of everybody, that is why they said security is everybody’s business. The role of members of the public is very little, their own role is supplying of adequate information, when you ( public) see something (report to the police), police are not magicians and they can be everywhere all the time, the duty of members of the public is to quickly inform them (Police). If strange faces are being noticed in your area or strange gatherings report them to the police, that is the civic duty of every responsible citizen. The duty of security agencies is to synergize among themselves to share information because we are all working towards the same goal, and what is that goal, the goal of guarantying the safety of our people at all times. The police and our sister security agencies we are working hand in hand, aside from that other people who are stakeholders in the business of providing security we are carrying them along, we are talking of the local vigilantes, the hunters and other groups with one or two things to do provision of security, we are carrying them along and because of that we have been to achieve a lot. The best form of policing is community policing, we use the people to police the people, it makes the job easier. No policeman can succeed without the cooperation of members of the public, it is not possible. A policeman that was transfered from Kano to Ogun State, how is he going to know the terrain of Ogun State more than somebody who was born and brought up in that community, so he needs the cooperation of that person for him to perform at the optimal level and that is what we are doing, that is why we have a very strong and robust Police Community Relations Committee the PCRC and they have been helping a lot. We have a strong relationship with the hunters, if kidnappers ran into the bush, the hunters know the terrain of the bush because that is where they’re carrying out their duties all the time, so we carry all of them along and we have been involving flushing hoodlums together who are hiding in our forest, so the best form of policing is community policing.
There are lots of challenges facing Ogun State as regard kidnappings, cultist clash ritual killings and others, don’t you think these activities will affect the forthcoming elections sir?
Let me start from the issue of kidnapping, every community has their own fair share on kidnapping saga, Ogun State is not an exception but as I am talking to you now we have been able to apprehend several kidnappers, some even lost their lives in an encounter with the police. The one I can vividly remember is that of Lagos-Ibadan express way where three of the kidnappers were gun down with over three AK 47 retrieved from them, another two were shot dead along Ayetoro Road and many of them are undergoing judicial prosecutions. In terms of cultism, in those days you can only hear of cultist in higher institution of learning but nowadays everywhere cultism has become everybody’s business you see barbers, mechanics, bus conductors, okada riders all of them are joining cultist. If we look at it critically you will agree with me, that the level of operation being carried out by the police, you will agree with me that there’s no way cultism can affect the fourth coming elections.
