Alcohol-induced crimes have shot up criminal activities across the country, especially in some rural areas, where criminal activities were initially known to be somewhat low or non-existent, investigation has revealed.
Besides, a week-long investigation showed that the root cause of the problem might not be unconnected with the fact that the traditional approach to tackling public space violence, has, over-time, not necessarily translated to policing violent crimes occurring in homes.
It was discovered that the “legal high” drugs, which include lizard faeces and other related drugs, as a matter of fact “trigger violent behavior of unequal proportion” as “more crimes of violence are occurring in people’s homes, often behind closed doors. In other words, there has been a steady swing in the balance from public space to private space, meaning the increasing number of violent crimes in private space is now becoming a concern to crime watchers”.
In addition ,it was also learnt that violent crime, per se, in private space does not just relate to domestic abuse and the law enforcers only recently saw the need to understand why this has become the order of the day.
Corroborating our findings, a Criminologist and former assistant inspector general of police, Mr. Bala Hassan, explained that increase in certain types of violence may actually be due to new psychoactive drugs followed by the unregulated culture of alcohol consumption that is fast gaining ground among the populace.
Hassan, who said tackling alcohol consumption was a key factor to stemming the tide, was quick to insist that, “the relationship between violence and alcohol has long been toxic”.
According to him, something better has to be put in place to checkmate the trend.
“You do not need any soothsayer to tell you that, there is a gradual shift in violence away from the cities to the rural areas. At this point in time, what we collectively need as parents is what I can safely call intervention work so that the larger society would not be burdened with the wrong perception.
“There is no gainsaying the fact that many Nigerians [both young and old] have now formed the habit of drinking alcohol in private spaces, relishing in new drugs such as pawpaw dried leaves. The dry leaves are generally seen as “legal highs” that have neither been classified nor banned by the authorities,” he said.
Also speaking with our correspondent, Dr.Adebayo Francis Komolafe of the Department of Guidance and Counselling, University of Ibadan, wondered whetherthe matter could be related to the police significantly reducing their use of “stop-search” tactics.
Komolafe, however, was quick to say that there was no conclusive correlation.
He equally identified three major things that could have justified increase in violence in the rural setting.
“Alcohol is one, in that there has been a steady rise in people consuming alcohol in private spaces.
“Then, the use of psychoactive substances that could lead to or cause violent behaviour and lastly, the general belief that the police are not doing enough.
Go to some of our police stations and ask the officer-in –charge to show you their Violence StrategicAssessment Book,You will but agree with me that they have all seen the new challenges in the area of weapons, violent crimes and how to tackle them.
The matter is only exacerbated with the influx of gunwielding local cult sect members on our streets,” he said.
Crimes generally should be approached proactively, as there is a need for the sane public to take full responsibility since a lot of the crimes occur partly because people have been negligent
Komolafe further said, “Crimes generally should be approached proactively, as there is a need forthe sane public to take fullresponsibility since a lot of the crimes occur partly because people have been negligent, thereby creating opportunity for criminals to take advantage of them.
If our homes are secure, the entire country is secure. If you do not carry cash around and do other any related silly things, you could hardly be a victim because many crimes are victims precipitated”.
However, a security expert, Mr. Martins Godson, in his own reaction opined, “Clearly, there could be a link to alcohol. But, we won’t address violence solely by policing because if the violence is not happening on our streets, but in our houses, then policing isn’t going to help that.”
