By Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
Following the recent attack on female students of the Rivers State University by unknown hoodlums, angry citizens of the state are now calling on Governor Siminalayi Fubara to sack the chief security officer (CSO) of the institution.
The angry citizens are blaming the CSO of the university for inefficiency and dereliction of duty during the attack on the female students, wondering why a chief security officer of a higher institution cannot promptly alert and mobilize security operatives throughout the ugly incident believed to have lasted for close to one hour.
They argue that for the attackers to carry out their nefarious operation for that long and leave without disruption by security operatives means that the CSO was either complacent about his duty or lacked an efficient security mechanism.
“I still don’t understand how the criminals will penetrate the school and carry out their evil acts without the school security knowing. Don’t they have a chief security officer? What was he doing? Why didn’t he call the police? If they have, they should sack or arrest him,” said an angry woman, who said her cousin was one of the victims of the attack.
Speaking under the plea of anonymity, she commended the Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, for visiting the scene of the incident to see things for himself and urged him to overhaul the entire security system of the university.
“The governor should do something about this. Am happy he has visited the place and he promised that it won’t happen again. But he should not talk and leave it like that.
“Let him remove the CSO and rearrange the security of the school. We need action, so that people will learn to be serious with their job because I can’t understand how these bad boys will do this, and not one of them was arrested. Did they come from the moon? Are they not students of the school as the governor said? The CSO and those working with him should even be queried,” she said.
A security expert in the state, Stanley Nsofo, has also called for the sack of the chief security officer of the university.
He made the call while reacting to the incident on Thursday in Port Harcourt.
Nsofo said: “For me as a security analyst and a professional, I think I’ll call for the sack of the CSO of that institution. Up till now, he has not made a comment and from the voices we heard, the operation lasted for about an hour. They called, but nothing happened.
“So what are the measures he has put in place as the chief security officer of that school? And what has he done since the incident has been happening? If it was the first time, we would have said maybe he had not thought of it but the students confirmed that this is not the first, not the second, and not the third time.
“Negligence is one of the first things. If the CSO and the security guards that are posted there are not negligent, they would have known
what to do. If they had called the control room and there was no response, the police would have taken part of the blame. But they may have been calling the CSO perhaps who may not know what to do.”
Similarly, the chairman of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Chijioke Ihunwo, has called for the questioning of the chief security officer of the university as well as a thorough investigation of the incident.
Ihunwo said: “I want to also use this medium to call on the school management to immediately launch an investigation into those behind this criminal act and bring them to book.
“I also want to call on the school vice chancellor to immediately question the chief security officer of the institution. I wonder why people will come into a big institution like RSU, invade the place, and assault Rivers State students.”
The NYCN chairman in the state further implored Governor Siminalayi Fubara to ensure that the incident is well investigated.
“I want to use this medium to call on His Excellency the governor of our state to immediately constitute a committee to investigate the activities of the institution because Rivers State students are also youths,” he said.
