Interior Minister Condemns Giving Ethnic Colouration to Crime
The Minister of the Interior, Ogbeni Aregbesola, has warned that Nigerians should put an end to supporting crime and giving ethnic colouration to criminal activities in the country.
The Minister made the call today while receiving a delegation from the Executive Intelligence Management Course EIMC 14, of the National Institute for Security Studies NISS, led by its Commandant, Ayodele Adeleke in his office Abuja.
Aregbesola noted that as an African nation that pays attention to morality, all forms of crimes and criminality should be despised.
He said Nigerians must liken security with the universal image of a society that emphasises the dignity of man and human development, pointing that crime is an enemy to the nation.
“One thing we must all resist is the tendency of seeing crime in relation to one ethnic group or another, a criminal is a criminal no matter the ethnic group he or she belongs to. No ethnic group in Nigeria glorifies crime and criminality, so let us all condemn the crime. Our morality itself makes crime an unpopular vocation,” he said.
The Minister charged the National Institute for Security Studies NISS that as a security training institution it should recognise the necessity to formulate policy analysis that will ensure proper reorientation of an average Nigerian to see crimes and criminality the way it is.
According to him, there will be no good government in the face of chaos. Therefore, nisi should begin to devise means to help Nigerians fix the mindset of linking the crime to a particular ethnic group and stop prioritising tension and heating the polity unnecessarily.
Aregbesola noted further that in most cases, poverty is the root cause of some crimes in society. Therefore, he called on Nigerians and philanthropist to empower the less privileged and work in hand with the government to bring development and reduce the rate of poverty in the nation.
Giving his remarks, Dr Shuaib Belgore, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, said the Ministry and its Services would continue to carry out their core mandates geared towards the protection of lives and property of Nigerians well as citizenship integrity.
