Jonathan says time to confront bandits, kidnappers headlong

*Condoles Pa Fasoranti over daughter’s death

By Adewale Momoh, Akure.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday commiserated with the National Leader of Afenifere, Chief Reuben Fasoranti on the demise of his daughter, Mrs. Olufunke Olakunri, who was shot dead by gunmen last week.

Jonathan, who described the death Mrs. Olakunrin as a tragic incident, said that the sad development reminds everyone of the dire situation the country is currently enmeshed in.

According to the former President, for the country to overcome the security challenges plaguing her, a new approach must be employed at tackling the menace.

Jonathan, who signed the condolence register at the home of the Afenifere leader, wrote that “I called to pay condolence to baba on the death of the daughter. With me are King A. J. Turner, Tobias James and Prof. Brizebe Seiyefa. This death is very painful to all Nigerians. The circumstance of the death is devastating. We pray that God should give the family, especially baba the fortitude to bear the loss. May her soul rest in peace.”

Speaking with journalists after the visit, he added that “we know we will all die and that death does not respect age. But, the circumstance of death matters so much. Particularly, in this case, it is quite a painful incident.

“Every generation of human beings face problems and that generation must find ways of solving that problem. Every government faces some unique problems. Insecurity has been with us since after the civil war. That was the first time we experienced armed robbery in Lagos. From armed robbery, it graduated to kidnapping.

“The first major kidnapping I described as commercial kidnapping because some money exchanged hands happened in 2006 when I was also a governor of Bayelsa state.

“From commercial kidnapping it moved to terrorism in the north and now some kind of terrorist attacks all over the country, when people will just come out on the road and spray bullets on innocent people; that is terror attack. You have no reason to attack somebody you don’t even know; that is terrorism.

“It’s now a major problem to the country and my belief is that the federal government working with the state government must design a different approach.

“I was there as President for some time, security challenges were there with me, I also inherited some. But, it is getting worse every day. And we cannot continue to use the same old method.

“The police, the SSS and the armed forces must deploy technology and I believe if the federal government will need to set up a special unit, just like we set up EFCC and ICPC to handle specific issues of corruption, they will know that their total responsibility is to manage this issue of kidnapping and terrorist attacks on people going on the road or going to the farms.”

According to Jonathan, the 2014 confab report has already addressed all the issues affecting the country, particularly insecurity and charged the Buhari administration to go through the report for solutions.

“We can’t continue this way; it is not just possible because we can’t talk about managing the economy of this country if people are not safe. Economy is for the people, they must alive to enjoy infrastructure. Even if you tar all the roads in the country and people cannot move around, then the road becomes meaningless.

“In 2014, when I was a sitting President, we had a national conference where a number of things were discussed. The issues of security, state and regional police were discussed. I always believe that government should look into that report because it was not written by me, so we should not play politics with issue of national issues.

“If we look into that report, there are recommendations that bother on security and if there is an area that needs to be expanded because I believe everyday new idea comes, it should be updated. There is nothing wrong holding a specific meeting to look at the issue of security. I believe the federal and state governments having a new approach, deploying technology and having more money to protect our people,” he added.