…How locals can use technology to stop herdsmen attacks—Security expert
By Chinonso Alozie
OWERRI—A Catholic priest in Imo State, Reverend Father Kizito Onyeka yesterday said that due to the level of reported killings in the country, citizens are now in search of a good shepherd to rescue them.
Armed herdsmen
Delivering his sermon at St Matthias Church Urratta, Owerri North Local Government Area, he also urged the electorate ahead of 2019 general elections not to sell their conscience in exchange for material things.
This came as a security expert, Gill Onwudiwe of the American Emergency Alert System said training the locals with the newly invented emergency alert systems could end the herdsmen attacks among other violent crimes in the communities.
According to the priest who was worried over the series of reported killings by suspected herdsmen, “there are massive killings and bloodshed in Nigeria. This is because those called to be shepherds are not really shepherds. Nigeria has failed in leadership.
“If you look around, you will see that the country is in search of a good shepherd. What we are seeing are people who are parading themselves as shepherds but they are not.
“The level of dis-satisfaction, confusion and fears are clear indications that the leadership has failed. It shows that there are no shepherds. This is why we are in search of a shepherd.
“Very soon, elections will start and some of us will go ahead and sell our conscience over a plate of porridge, a bag of rice and many other material things. When you are doing that, you are voting into power those who are coming in the guise of shepherds.”
Looking at the possible solutions to the spate of killings linked to herders in the country, a security outfit, American Emergency Alert Systems Limited under Gill Onwudiwe has rolled out strategies to end the scourge.
“We came up with this one on sirens. I was shocked at what sirens can do. We found out that it is already used in Saudi Arabia, North Korea and Israel. It is a multi-purpose programme, putting sirens at strategic positions and when a crime is committed, every human being that has eyes and ears will know that something is going on somewhere. And then, we shall train some local people to be managed by local chiefs to do what they are supposed to do and lock down their local areas whenever they hear the siren, so that nobody goes in and nobody goes out.
“At that point, the only people you can see are the culprits because they will be in a hurry get out of the area. Then, the populace will identify those who are in a hurry to leave the town.”