By Akinwale Kasali
Former Deputy Chairman of opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Bode George, has faulted the invasion of Oyo Government House by O’odua Nation agitators on the failure of having State Police.
The PDP Chieftain said that he has always been a supporter and advocate of having State Police, stressing that if such had been implemented and put in place, there wouldn’t have been such attack.
He added that the failure of intelligence by the country’s security agencies also led to this.
George made this assertions while speaking on Arise TV on Monday. He said that the agitators carried out the planned invasion without the security agencies knowing, and insisted the incident pushes the urgent need for the establishment of state police.
His words, “ What surprises me is that it didn’t leak to the intelligence department of this nation. They carried their weapons and were there in military uniforms, and nobody stopped them on the road.
“This calls for the urgent need for state police because they couldn’t have been meeting somewhere if we were well organized. After all, the state police and the SSS would have been there and come to terms to prevent it. Now, they’ve carried out their mission.
“Also, what happened is a confirmation that, in terms of policing, intelligence gathering is in short supply. What is the total population of the Nigerian police and intelligence departments at the national and state levels? Every political discussion is local, and we need to establish very urgently state police because state police will be people drawn from the area; they know the culture, norms, dos and don’ts, and information gathering will be much faster.”
The elder statesman went further by calling on the Federal Government to revisit the country’s educational curriculum.
“When we were in primary school, there was the teaching of civics, your responsibilities to your nation, and the responsibilities of the nations to yourself and the general area. I’m not sure if they teach civics or history anymore.
“How will these young men be able to handle this discussion? Something is missing; we need to revisit ourselves as a nation. If they had been taught history, they would have known the consequences. I want to advise the president to wake up and add it as part of the curriculum for education.
It would be recalled that last weekend, some suspected Yoruba nation agitators dressed in military camouflage and armed with weapons occupied and attempted to overwhelm security operatives at the Oyo StateAssembly complex and hoisted their own flag within the Assembly premises.
But, the swift intervention of the Police and other Security Agencies led to the arrest of some of the agitators.
