Prof. Oyesoji Aremu, a Criminal justice psychologist at the Department of Psychology, University of Ibadan has urged the Federal Government to ensure grassroots policing to reduce insecurity across the country.
Aremu, who made the plea during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Friday, said the Federal Government should be more daring and improve the military operations as well as reconnaissance.
He noted that the idea of negotiating with bandits by some state governors should be discouraged as this could motivate criminals to carry out more nefarious attacks on innocent civilians.
“The spate of killings is increasing in the country, it’s not only overwhelming, the entire security architecture is also stretched.”
The expert stated that while the narratives in respect of the contributing factors include free arms dealing, porous borders and influx of armed fugitives from North Africa especially from Libya and Maghreb.
According to him, there was also lack of government presence in many villages and vast forests in the Northern parts of the country.
Aremu said this had led to illegal mining and demobilised political thugs are also some of the factors responsible for the spate of killings.
On the issue of cyber-crime especially among the youths, he noted that it was as a result of the collapse of the value system in our society.
“More often, some unguided youths see it as a quick way of making fortune and unfortunately, some parents promote such behaviour among their wards,” Aremu said.
The criminal justice expert, however, said curbing this would require all hands to be on deck.
He added that there would be a change by revisiting our national value systems which are now grossly submerged by the political class.
“Reawakening of these could gear up the same in society and homes,” Aremu said. (NAN)