By Demola Akinyemi
A legal expert, Yusuf Ola-Olu Ali, SAN, has expressed concern that the state of insecurity in Nigeria will be on the increase unless President Muhammadu Buhari effect the overhaul of the nation’s security architecture which he stressed is beyond removing the Service chiefs.
He stated that with the lingering cases of insecurity in the country ranging from insurgency, kidnapping and banditry among others, the government must act fast to do the needful in the security sector.
Recall that proponents of service chiefs’ removal hold the belief that they had outlived their usefulness in office and it behoves of the government to inject fresh blood.
Ali, a senior lawyer based in Ilorin also tasked politicians to be honourable in their desperate fight for powers and save the judiciary from avoidable embarrassments of conflicting judgements.
Speaking in an interview with Journalists in Ilorin, on the state of the nation, the erudite legal icon said the sustained claim by the military that Boko Haram had been degraded could not be held onto due to attendant onslaughts from the fiendish sect.
He said: “The President did not consult us when he was appointing these people (service chiefs). But we are entitled to make comment about their performance. Going by what is on the ground in terms of the level of insecurity in the Northeast, kidnapping all over the country, banditry, cattle rustling the state of insecurity is fearful and far from being degraded.
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“Every time we are told Boko Haram has been degraded, they come back with venom. I think we have to overhaul our security architecture. It is beyond even removing people. We must overhaul our security architecture. Some things are not working right in our system.
“So, I think for me, it is more than just service chiefs. We should dig deeper to get to the bottom of all of these, otherwise, we would be moving in the circles”.
The front line legal luminary also advocated the deployment of drones to all troubled spots to combat the criminality headlong.
On conflicting judgements, Ali said”Let’s appeal to our politicians, there is honour even among rogues, there is no honesty of purpose among our politicians. Why would a man has a case in Ilorin and take it to Abuja, they should be at least honourable in their desperate fight for political power and allow our democracy to grow. The court should also wash their hands off such cases and save our judiciary from all these needless embarrassments.”
The senior lawyer on the increasing cases of rape in the country today admonished that those found guilty of the offence should be treated as a murderer.
He said: “Raping is like committing murder, the person has been thoroughly debased, such person is a walking corpse. It is walking side by side with kidnapping, no punishment is too much if they say such person penis should be cut good, enough.
“We should all stand firmly against it, and not consider family input, the correct lessons must be taught and learnt.”
From Nigeria’s experience of COVID-19 pandemic, Yusuf Ali urged politicians in authorities to learn a lesson, saying that its high time we developed our own infrastructure and facilities without relying on any country for survival.
He said: “Our experience now should treat our leaders’ lesson to equip our health facilities in Nigeria because something worse than COVID-19 could come next time so that we can all have somewhere to run to. The current pandemic is a leveller whether you are rich or poor, it levelled everyone, there is nowhere to run to for the rich and the poor and we are all a witness to what is happening now.”
He also charged those who are doubtful of the reality of the pandemic not to be buried before the reality is dawn on them insisting that its real.
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