For a keen observer, there have not been reported cases of armed robberies, kidnappings and most criminal activities that used to be rampant in our society for about two weeks now when EndSARS protests began to tear the country apart. In Ogbomoso as an instance, today, Saturday, October 10, marks two weeks the protest took off, precipitated by students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), in the city.
Sequel to the killing of Jimoh Isiaka at Owode on this day by the police the hitherto peaceful protest turned violent leading to more deaths the second day and the invasion of the Ogbomoso palace by some aggrieved persons after more protesters were mowed down by the police. The palace was vandalized and there were apprehensions over the safety of the Ogbomoso’s monarch Oba Oyewumi and the Minister of Youths and Sports Sunday Dare who was in the palace at the time of the invasion for a jawjaw. In addition, there were strenuous attempt by the rioters to overrun the police and burn down the Owode Police Area Command which was however thwarted.
Since that Sunday, October 11, the police in Ogbomoso seem to have been on holiday, and not only the police all other security agencies, the Civil Defence also and others. In fact, a visit to the Owode Police station shows that since the attack on the station, its gate has been locked with a chain conspicuously holding it tight, with entry and exit properly screened.
They have not been going on patrol, it is doubted if people are also allowed to make reports of matters; arguably, the police are on strike in the city. It is a safety measure anyway, a police man in uniform seen anywhere in the city could of course be a target of lynching as being witnessed elsewhere where policemen have become endangered species, the hunter becoming the hunted and haunted. It is greatly a moment of trial for the police force. Yet, the rate of crime has reduced, all those malefactions have not been heard for the period under review, it is strange. Even with the disbandment of the dreaded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), the police unit, whose brutality sparked the current anarchy, its operatives off the streets has not been felt negatively.
It is unfathomable, no police, no SARS, no robberies! What is the correlation?
