News outlets were awash with chilling news of armed robbery raids on areas where there are large concentrations of students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Oyo state, earlier this week, with some attributing the crime to Fulani herders which the school management however quickly dispelled. Admitting there were cases of security breaches by men of the underworld, it countered the claim it’s being perpetrated by a particular group of people. It nonetheless assured proactive measures have been taken to break the yoke.
While the criminal attacks is condemnable, a plausible assessment will reveal that the management of the institution is not culpable as is being insinuated in some quarters. Universities which are non-residential, once in a while, are liable to such infraction when evil people take advantage of the situation. Off-campus residency for students comes with such inexorable baggage. The duty of securing the hapless students in the private hostels they rent therefore, whose responsibility is it? Is it the duty of the management of such institutions to provide such service? It’s obvious that it’s not the responsibility of the management but of government through security agencies and more specifically of the landlords and hostel owners. The persons who earn rent on a property have the onerous task of securing their property and the residents by engaging security agents, conventional or non-conventional ones.
Crimes cannot be eliminated in a society, no matter the efforts put, even in most developed countries, we are often inundated with cases of gun attacks on innocent students by some psychopaths, so, we can only make concerted efforts to reduce them. LAUTECH in this situation has taken measures to combat the menace, engaging the services of different security agencies to patrol the areas where its students have large concentrations. The hostel/house owners are also implored to employ guards to enhance the security architecture, jointly or individually, they stand to lose maximally if persistent harms to students spark a move to campus residency.
Security agencies should also intensify efforts to neutralize crimes, not only in communities contiguous with LAUTECH but in all Ogbomoso. It’s why they exist. Securing the environment is their primary responsibility.
LAUTECH shall be free!
