FEATURES

Of insecurity and the palpable act of negligence

To say that the evil that men do live with them is the same as saying that humans are the causes of the mishaps that befall them. Rather than take smart steps to tackle problems that arise, humans go on a wild-goose chase, attacking the shadows of their enviable opposition and then, the problem persists. Things should never be taken for granted. Problems are like stubborn children, that stare straight into the faces of adults to defend their irrational actions. To keep such children at bay, they must be sternly dealth with, neither with a slip nor with slack in actions.
At the early hours of Monday, occupants of a room in I Block notified queenites of a theft that occured at 6:30am in their room. According to them, the thief stepped into their room as soon as one of their roomates went to use the toilet. He threatened to wound anyone that tries to resist or raise an alarm. At the end, he went away with 4 phones and 2 laptops.
While such case has never been reported in Queens Hall in a very long time, there is need to go back to the drawing board, check how the thief gained entry and steps that have been taken so far to ensure that such issue will not arise.

A step back to the drawing board

It is no doubt that Queens hall is a home away from home for most of the occupants. This explains why most queenites are careless with regards to safeguarding their rooms. While it is necessary for queenites to take concious efforts to secure their properties, the bulk of the work lies with those that have the mandate to secure the lives and properties of occupants within the hall.
Stating the problems of insecurity in the hall, the first is the fence. It is can be climbed by anyone that deems it fit. This is because there are perforated holes that makes climbing it easy either to get in or out. Should we consider the fence as an emergency exit in the hall? Lack of capable security personnels in the hall is another default. The security personnels are quite aged to be active like the younger ones. Most of the fresh men do not know them yet, they leave early. This makes them unavailable in times of urgency. The negligence of porters could make the hall vulnerable to such attacks by leaving the main entrance opened without any porter seen there. Minor things we seem not to get worried about could cause damage that cannot be easily controlled.

So far, so good. How the hall management intends to stop future occurrence

Speaking with the hall supervisor, Mr. Saheed Ojuolape. He said that ‘the hall management has written to the school for barb wire to be fixed on top of the fence. The management is making further efforts to make sure that such never happen in the hall again’.
Other steps that can be taken to ensure that such occurrence does not repeat itself is to give whistle to every queenites in order to raise an alarm whenever the need calls for it as this will call the attention of the porters, the security personnels and every other queenite to be at alert for the next step of action. Another means could be to have self defense training sessions in the hall once in a while as it might be helpful to queenites to fight against such attack anywhere they find themselves. What do you think of electric fence? Legal occupants of the hall come in through the gate. Only those with an ulterior motive will consider climbing the fence. It is no evil if they get electrocuted. Most importantly, queenites should not get tired of locking their doors at all times since every occupant has a key to the room.
Let every person play their role. The student cannot play the management’s role neither can the management play the students’ role. Identify what is right and do such in due time. Justice delayed is justice denied, so they say. Acting fast on sudden occurence brings no evil. Dear queenites, never be too loose on the strength and weakness of your residence. Act wise with all consciousness.