Security Failure: PAAU lied, misled Kogi Commissioner of Police, management team should be sacked

Claims that insecurity in the campus of Kogi State University, Anyigba, now Prince Abubakar Audu University has improved by the management when the State Commissioner of Police, CP Miller Dantawaye embarked on familiarization tour of Kogi East, was a blatant lie and misleading.

One is appalled that the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration), Professor Johnson Juwon Balogun brazenly lied to the Police Commissioner instead of opening up on the worst security situation in the campus of the ivory tower.

Advertisements

The visit of the Commissioner of Police was meant for him to have first hand information which would form the integral part of strategies to tackle security challenges, but concealing the real security challenges in the University amid continued threats to lives of unsuspecting students is most incomprehensible. This is even as cultists are holding sway unchallenged; when the University is a hotbed of ‘yahoo boys’ with brutal killing of school age girls for money ritual purposes most often has taken us aback as to what is the rationale behind the lies.

Recently a 400-level student of Library and Information Studies of the Prince Abubakar Audu University, Judah Victor Ojoajogwu got mission for a whole month, only for his lifeless body riddled with gunshot wounds found along Egume road, Anyigba.

Advertisements

Neither the PAAU management could account for the incident nor the Anyigba Police Division has offered any meaningful and credible investigation report of what happened to the young man till date.

Three months ago, a young girl was found dead along Anyigba-Egume expressway not far from the University in what was suspected to be ritual killing by ‘yahoo boys’ disguising as students in the University. Besides, there are unreported cases of cult attacks within the campus and around the University community.

More worrisome is the University management watching supine these dastardly acts being perpetrated without rising to the occasion of taming the tide from year to year.

Under Professor Marietu Tenuche as Vice Chancellor of PAAU, insecurity has worsened with killing and missing students without any decisive effort through the University’s internal security mechanism to tackle the incidences.

Sadly, the University management has been maintaining sealed lips on incessant killing and missing incidences of students. In the word of the Deputy Vice Chancellor who played host to the CP, he said: “Professor Johnson Juwon Balogun who acknowledged the remarkable improvement in security within the campus, and commended the efforts of the police in Anyigba.

“He further commended the leadership style of the CP for taking his time to tour the state to strengthen collaboration with critical stakeholders to enable them contribute to the security in their respective areas.”

Kogi State Police Command in a statement by its Public Relations Officer, SP William Ovye Ayah made available to the media, revealed that the tour of Kogi East was for the Police boss to see the situation of things by himself and to strengthen collaboration between the police and the institution.

The CP assured residents of Kogi State that under his leadership, the command will intensify proactive, intelligence-led, and community-based Policing strategies to ensure peace and safety across all communities. With the determination of the Police boss to change the narratives, how would the PAAU seized the opportunity to restore normalcy in the citadel of learning?

It’s a normal routine to hire and fire public officers. We hope the Executive Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Usman Ahmed Ododo will look into the University with a view to rejig the education system by sacking the Marietu Tenuche-led management.

Advertisements