Night
is associated with darkness: it is a period in which people go to sleep –
resting from the day’s job stress in order to be refreshed for the next day job
activities.
It
is not a surprise, however, that many evils are perpetrated at this period,
nights.
The
account in the book of Genesis 19 was about two Angels who came into the land
of Sodom and spent the night with Lot, Abraham’s cousin. In the night, men of
the city came – knocking on Lot’s door and yelling that the men (who were
angels) be brought out so that they could sleep with them.
Evil permeates the night as a result
of darkness that surrounds it – covering the identities of evil workers.
Various
atrocities committed at night
In
the year 2007 at Oremeji (area of Ibadan), Oyo State Nigeria: an Albino lady
was found in tattered cloth with blood and bruises all over her body – crying.
According to her, some men gang-raped, beat her and tore her cloth. Wherever
she was coming from at that time could not be ascertained, but activities do
not stop until around 1am in the area where that incident occurred.
Another
one was the case of a woman minister of the gospel who was robbed the night
that her husband travelled. According to her, she started to hear movement
around the compound (at about 11pm) when she was praying: not long, somebody
dashed into the sitting room with knife in his hand and motioned to her to keep
quiet, an instruction which she refuted by running into the bedroom – shouting
the name of Jesus. She said that it was a night of trauma for her and her last
born son.
Many
unkind things happen at night: killings of people by the police; intentionally
hitting people with cars by ritualists all for the purpose of cutting their
heads off; gang-raping; armed robbery; assassinations; execution of terrorism
plans; cultists meetings and clashes; and prostitution among others.
Although,
some of these things also happen during the day: the night occurrences of them
are usually out of control.
This
then calls for community policing
According
to Bertus Ferreira, “Community policing is a philosophy of full service
personalized policing, where the same officer patrols and works in the same
area on a permanent basis, from centralized place, working in a proactive
partnership with citizens to identify and solve problems”.[1]
Since
community policing denotes that officers are assigned to particular areas to
work on regular basis and in tandem with people in those areas, it also means
that those officers will be able to identify unfamiliar faces (more than never)
and thereby, be swift in curbing crimes at the primary levels.
It
also means that police will substitute for vigilantes and be armed with weapons
for self defence and protection of people.
For
effective community policing
Government
will have to orientate people and reorientate the police – provided community
policing would be executed. It should not be a mean for the police to accuse
people just for the purpose of extortion; it should also not be that police
officers will be paid peanuts for their sacrifices; and it must mean that more
hands will be employed into the force and given adequate trainings on how to
combat crimes to a standstill.
On
the part of the citizenry, government would need to sensitise them on the need
for quick reporting of suspicious activities within their neighbourhood without
fear.
From
the end of Government, there should be a flexible system of checks and balances
that will cause the police and other forces to maintain integrity,
professionalism and excellence in duties.
When
these things are done, then the citizenry will be able to sleep without fear of
being robbed. Some of them will be able to move (freely) without the fear of
being attacked at any hour of the day, and people will be able to work with the
government to take the country to a coveting level among the nations of the world.