Physician Blames Killing of Female Lawyer on Failure to Adopt State Police
Fidelis David in Akure
United States-based physician, Dr. Charles Oludare yesterday blamed the killing of female lawyer. Mrs. Omobolanle Raheem on the refusal of the federal government to decentralise the Nigeria Police.
Oludare, also Raheem’s personal physician, lamented that the lawyer and her unborn child were killed by the bullets of a policeman who was probably trying to extort their purse as opposed to enforcing any law.
He expressed grave concern about the incident in a statement he issued in Akure, the Ondo State capital yesterday, revealing that he was once a physician to the slain lawyer at a Lagos private hospital,
Oludare lamented that the hopes and aspirations of two different generation had been quenched by the fingers of a felon officer.
He noted that the refusal of the federal government to allow state police system “is responsible for the killing of the slain lawyer.”
He said: The presidential candidate of APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in a condolence message to the family of Omobolanle, shared the grief and frustrations on his compatriots over this senseless killing and reiterated his over two decades-long position about the need to reform the Nigerian security infrastructure.
“One might ask; how would Tinubu or his idea have prevented this senseless killing? Was Omobolanle not killed in Tinubu’s Lagos? What has he done to end police brutality in Lagos or Nigeria?
“The reason they ask these questions is because they have failed to understand the basis of the problem.
“We all saw the interaction between the current Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Sanwo-Olu and a Chief Superintendent of Police in Magodo, where a rogue CSP was defiant of both the governor and the judgement of the court.
“If we live in a country where the chief security officer of a state cannot make a security officer in his state enforce the court’s injunction, should we be surprised to find that our polity is close to anarchy?”
The physician, also an indigene of Oka-Akoko in Ondo State, further lamented: “We have created overlords in Abuja; hence feel no need to be accountable to no one.
“Unknown soldiers, unknown policemen parade our streets without fetters, doing as they wish with no one to reign them in. Tinubu’s idea as a governor was not based on a grandiose desire to control the force.
“Rather, it is based on his belief in the fairness, conscience and the will of the average Lagosian to ensure the security and sanity of their own environment.
“Tinubu trusts you to do the right thing, that is why he is advocating for state and local police. In the united states, they do not have a United States Police force; they have multiple city-based police department, LAPD, NYPD, DALLAS PD, CHICAGO PD, etc.
“When the Manchester United player, Mason Greenwood, was arrested for alleged sexual assault, he was not arrested by the UK police force, he was arrested by the Greater Manchester Police. This is because every sane clime knows that security is local.
“The security demands in VGC is different from the security demands in Ajegunle, hence people living in those communities should be making decisions about how to best keep themselves safe.”
Oludare further explained that if the federal government had embraced Tinubu’s long-held ideas, Raheem’s murder would have been long prevented.
He noted that the police officer would have been an employee of the lagos State Local Government”, saying oversight function over his activities would not be so cumbersome and there would be political repercussions for any state official that allowed policing to turn to roguery.
