LCDA Chairman, Mr. Kehinde Bamigbetan
Chairman,
Ejigbo Local Council Development Area, Lagos State, Kehinde Bamigbetan
is to resume on Tuesday (today), nine days after he was kidnapped on his
way home.
Bamigbetan, who was released on
Saturday, said the first thing he would do was to convene a security
meeting scheduled for Wednesday. He spoke with PUNCH Metro at his residence on Monday.
According to him, there is a need to
look at security challenge in the council, state and the country and how
to forestall criminality.
He said, “We will hold meeting of LCDA
security council. I am the head of that council. It comprises the
Divisional Police Officers in Ejigbo. We will discuss the security
situation in the area and how to forestall criminality.
“After resumimg work tomorrow (Tuesday), a prayer session would also be held for my safe return.”
The council boss, however, lamented that youths had taken to criminality because of the situation of the country.
He said the people that kidnapped him last week Monday were unemployed graduates.
He said, “What they told me was that
their taking to crime was due to insensitive leadership. I am just
telling you the message they gave to me. They said leaders should
provide jobs for graduates.
“I am happy that the newspapers are
reflecting it. They will say this man has done the job we asked him to
do so that they won’t come to me again. My kidnappers are engineering
graduates – they are not rookies. They spoke good English – not Pidgin
English.
“The kidnap was not an isolated case. Go
to the Commissioner of Police in Lagos and ask him to give you the
crime statistics in Lagos in the last three months. From there you will
see kidnapping, armed robbery leading the pack. Unfortunately, this is
April, not ember month. Why is it happening now, it is happening because
the economy is grinding to a halt and money in circulation is only in
the hands of a few.”
He said the panacea for crime in the country remained job provision.
Bamigbetan said, “How many of the
graduates have jobs? Look at the unemployment gap? Where will they eat
from now? So individuals have instincts – some are more courageous than
others. Those who have more courage, take to crime and damn the
consequences. The way out: Provide jobs for graduates.
Let us create development centres – for
examples NYSC members should be engaged in their states. If they engage
1,000, you will find out that the crime rate will come down. There is
solution to the problem. Crime rate can be managed.”
The council boss also advocated special status for Lagos, saying that the state accommodated many people from different states.
He said there was the need to take care
of the special baggage Lagos wass carrying by giving the state statutory
amount to cushion the effect of the excess baggage.
Bamigbetan said, “We have been saying it
that there is a need for special status for Lagos. Many people in
Lagos are not from the state. The special baggage Lagos is carrying
should be taken care of by the Federal Government.”
PUNCH
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