THE Governing Council of MD School, New Oko-Oba, Agege, has honoured its fallen member Mr Olufemi Kayode Oso, who was killed by some assailants in Lagos with a lecture.
It had as the theme: “Safety, options for self-protection”.
The school’s Executive Director Mrs. Omolara Adedugbe, told the audience how Oso died.
She said: “On March 4, 2016, he went to work, typical of him. Somebody was setting up an eatery and this person happened to be a colleague of his. He said he would help him set things right. This Saturday, a guy who worked for the eatery came in with one of his friends. They demanded money from Mr. Kayode, who told them he had none. An argument ensued and they stabbed him.”
To forestall such occurrences in the future, Mrs Adedugbe said the governing council decided to enlighten parents and teachers about security.
“Since the incident, the governing council, parents and the teachers, said there was the need to be security conscious.Security should be everybody’s business, the police alone cannot do all. We are under police, if everybody takes security seriously in our environment. If everybody is security conscious, we know what to do, then I think there will be fewer problems for us and at the end of the day, the society will be better off for it,” she said.
The guest speaker, Mr Julius Ogundeyi, Assistant Divisional police Officer (DPO), New Oko-Oba, who talked about security consciousness. He said: “Being security conscious is the process of creating awareness campaign in an environment. This is to enable the citizens know what security is about. One should be able to differentiate between their enemies and friends, citizens should be able to know whom, why, how to suspect a criminal.”
Ogundeyi said security was the business of everyone not just the law enforcement agents.
“As Nigeria’s security situation increase becomes a dilemma, one tends to ponder where to run to. No, we are to run nowhere; this is our country and, therefore, is a collective responsibility. With about 370,000 policemen to 170 million Nigerians, this is grossly insufficient to police for the entire nation. Therefore, it is a collective responsibility of all to be conscious of their environment.
“In Nigeria, it is estimated that one police officer is 494 citizens. There is no way policing could be effective with the growing population. Citizens must maintain adequate vigilant, communities must put proper security measures in their locality to checkmate the activities of criminals” he said.
To be security conscious, Ogundeyi counseled the participants to be friendly with neighbours, vigilant, keep simple lifestyles, never give out information carelessly, keep gadgets close at night, ensure their homes have security equipment, avoid late night outings and examine visitors.
Eulogising the late Oso, Mrs. Adedugbe said: “If someone has a spirit of community help, empathy and selflessness, it comes naturally for that person, you will see that today almost all aspects of his life have been represented. He was once a PTA chairman, to ensure that parents are carried along and part of bringing up the children in the school. Then after his tenure, all his children had passed out, he didn’t end his relationship with the school, he would come in and check on what’s happening in the school. So, when we wanted to constitute the governing council who else would it be rather than somebody who has been there from the very beginning.
“When we had issues with the filling station been sited beside the school, he was the one that was representing the school and governing council at every meeting, with the DPR with the Lagos state House of Assembly, with the Commissioners for Planning, everywhere, he left his own personal job to be representing the school” she said.
