"You are born to bring positive change to Nigeria"....Prove it!

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=203794243006655&commentshttp://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=203794243006655&comments

Banker’s Murder: Govt’ll Verify Psychiatric Test

Lagos State Government Wednesday vowed to monitor and verify the  state of mind of Mr. Kolade Arowolo, who allegedly murdered his Lagos-based wife, Mrs. Titilayo Arowolo,  a staff of Skye Bank Plc, in order to forestall any form of manipulation and to ensure that justice is done in the matter.

 

State Deputy Governor, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope-Adefilure, who also supervises the Ministry for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA) made the position when the  Gender Based Violence Response Network (GBVN) called  at  her office on a protest visit over the gruesome murder.

Orelope-Adefilure thus asked law enforcement agents investigating the alleged murder of the banker, to conduct a thorough investigation, saying  justice “must not only  be heard, but be done”. The Deputy Governor stated that the state government would set up a committee to follow up the case to the last,  saying the spate of domestic violence must be nipped in the bud.

She vowed that state government  “will monitor the  case till the end and verify the psychiatric test on Arowolo, to block any form of manipulation and ensure that justice is meted out to the killer”, reminding that the 1999 constitution provides for equal rights for women and men .

Orelope-Adefilure added :  “It is a barbaric act. I felt so disturbed when I heard the news. What will happen to the three-year old child who witnessed the murder, she may be subjected to psychological trauma  if not managed. Is that fair?”

She lamented that thousands of Nigerian women are suffering in silence, adding that they did not complain of battering by their spouses, believing the marriage should not break.

“I can’t just understand the scenario that led to Titilayo’s death. I don’t accept that it was due to frustration or poverty. The case must be thoroughly investigated. Law enforcement agents should not hide under psychiatric complaints to muddle the case, ” she added.

According to the deputy governor, “we will leave the investigation to the police but I assure you that the state government will conduct its investigation to ensure that  justice prevails.”

She urged other state governments in the federation to emulate Lagos State by ensuring the speedy passage of the law against domestic violence, noting that  it is only when there is an enabling law that the campaign against the crime can be properly addressed.

She revealed that the government has established toll-free lines for victims of domestic violence in the State, urging the citizens to take advantage of medium to report incidence of violence happening around their homes.

Earlier, the leader of the civil rights group, Mrs. Josephine Effah-Chukwuma said women in Lagos are still in shock hearing how Titilayo was hacked to death last week by her husband.

She urged the state government to intensify efforts on implementation of the State’s Child Right Law and the Domestic Violence Law, to ensure violence against women and children in the larger society is reduced to minimum and to sensitize family institution, communities, religious bodies and Law Enforcement Agents towards implementation of the laws.

Also speaking, Producer of Television Series, Inside Out, Agatha Amata, while acknowledging previous roles of the government in similar circumstance urged the State Government to re-orientate the general public on the need to put an end to violence against women.

Culled from http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/banker-s-murder-govt-ll-verify-psychiatric-test/94597/

The Path to True Reconciliation, Healing, and Tranquility

The state of insecurity in our land is galling – to say the least. Worse still is that our security agencies have, so far, been explicably hamstrung and clueless. The immediate previous sentence comes across as witty, right? You have the right to feel that way, considering my curious use of pun. It is meant to pique your interest.

Seriously, our security agencies have, since independence and the brutal tyrannical rule of the military, been emasculated, rather than strengthened – over time. We are paying for that genuine oversight – or orchestrated move – today. Our security agencies are so reactive that the word ‘proactive’ has taken on another meaning for them. Gathering intelligence (intel) proactively is done in an archaic a manner as it gets. Worse still, is their worrisome failure to act on intel when received – often with attendant catastrophic consequences.

The seeming unrestrained rise in various schisms, across the country, taking up arms (including bombs), violently against the state – a treasonable offence, one punishable by death under the Laws of the Federal Republic Nigeria – is the result of frustrated, angry, and hungry people expressing their deep-seated disdain for the state and authorities of the state. Their resort to self help is borne out of a worrying failure, on the part of our leaders (past and present), to provide for their basic needs – shelter, food, jobs, and health care services. Their grievances are not misplaced, and attempting to give them an ethno-religious colouration only amounts to disparaging a serious, and potentially incendiary, issue. To my mind, their grievances are justified – totally.

Our leaders have, over time, failed to fulfil the terms (most of them unwritten) of the social contract between them and the led – in an altruistic manner. They have, instead, consistently and mindlessly trampled on such a contract. There is widespread angst in the land and it will take genuine and concerted efforts at reconciliation, healing, revamping (and building of new) social and physical infrastructure, and sustained massive investment in job creation, to stem the ugly drift.

Nigerian leaders are urged to adopt and apply the triumvirate approach set out below towards solving this growing resort to terrorism – through violent schisms. Amnesty is, definitely, not part of the solution set – for reasons which I believe are obvious. They should, as a matter of urgency:

-   Set about drastically reforming our security agencies (through training, retraining, and re-equipping them for professional and efficient service delivery), whilst engaging these schisms, not with a view to giving  in   to their demands (some of which are not based on sound reasoning), but to extend the olive branch – through  preaching of peace, reconciliation and healing;

-   Implement the Anti-Terrorism Bill, without further ado – and to the letter – by setting up a Counter – or  Anti – Terrorism Unit, to tackle the growing menace, of terrorism, to society; and above all;

-    Make promises that will be fulfilled, promises that will mean redistribution of the common wealth – from   surplus units to deficit units. Promises that will entail the saving of a significant part of our patrimony for  posterity to enjoy.

By

Ndubuisi Victor Ogwuda