10th House to debate on State Police bill at resumption of plenary – Rep Olajide
By Tom Okpe
Chairman, House of Representatives’ Committee on ICT, Rep Stanley Olajide has reiterated the 10th Assembly’s resolve towards the passage of bills on State Policing as part of ongoing efforts aimed at tackling, ravaging insecurity across the country.
The House member, representing Ibadan North West/South West of Oyo State federal constituency, gave this assurance at a press briefing at the National Assembly complex, Abuja on Wednesday.
He also, commiserated with Oyo State Government and families of victims of the explosion which occured in Ibadan, on Tuesday night.
He said: “Community policing is actually, one of the very smartest way to police your people. somebody sees something, knows something, needs to speak at the right time.
“Failure to do so will cause situation like this. So, we are going to reopen that debate because, we have been talking about State Police and soon, we’ll be talking about Community Police.
“Definitely, we’re going to pick this up and it’s going to be in the front burner of the activities of the House as soon as we reconvene, as a House.”
While reacting to the Tuesday explosion, Rep Olajide who applauded the prompt intervention of Governor Seyi Makinde and all the first responders, noted that their efforts will nip the situation.
“We woke up to a very horrific situation in Ibadan last night. From information gathered so far, coming from the office of the Governor of Oyo State, the dynamite or explosive detonated, and there was loss of lives a s properties.
“I do not want to speculate on the numbers of lives yet, because I don’t have those firm numbers yet, but, we do know that there are casualties.
“From the Office of the Governor we also understand that a lot of people are in the hospitals receiving treatment, which the Governor has actually made commitments to make sure that everybody is taken care of, and get first class medical treatment, deserved.
“I also, commend NEMA, the Police, DSS and all emergency responders that responded to this urgent call.
“At this point, that area remains a crime scene, which means, we have to work with the law enforcement agencies, to preserve the integrity of that area.
“So, we should let the first responders and security, medical agencies on rescue missions, go through their work, then, we’ll go there with our people and offer relief materials.
“I spoke with the Speaker of the House, Rep Tajudeen Abass and he offered his condolences to the people of Ibadan and Oyo State at large, mandating me yo do more fact-finding and present that to him at the end of today, (Wednesday).”
The House member regretted the ugly situation saying; “It’s unfortunate, the information we got is that, one of the illegal miners was in possession of this explosive in a residential area, which eventually caused the disaster.”
In the bid to unravel the immediate and remote causes of the incident, Rep Olajide called on Director General of Department of State Security, (DSS) to conduct thorough investigation into the incident.
“I’ve sent a message to the DG, DSS to make sure, thorough job is done, because, this destruction is one, too many.
He noted that explosives should be controlled adding that, “if you have this kind of explosive that could do this much damage, that means, they are relatively, available in the hands of the wrong people.
“We also have to look at how these things are stored, with a view to taking holistic approach to all these.”
In his contributions, Rep Ademorin Kuye expressed condolence to the Government of Oyo State and families of victims.
READ ALSO: Gov Kefas brings peace, stability, prosperity to..
“I want to join my colleagues to commiserate with the people who have lost a lot in this act of criminality by illegal miners. I particularly, have to come because Ibadan is like my second home. I schooled in Ibadan when it was in Oyo State.
“I just want to further reiterate the position of my colleague, that there is need for fiscal federalism and that can lead to having State police.
“I believe that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at his campaign, promised to work with the National Assembly, to ensure we have State Police.”
