John TAKURO

Safety of life and property is one of the paramount duties of any unit, community, state and national leadership and it is essential to address this in order to establish the trust of inhabitants in the ability of their government to guarantee their safety.

In Nigeria, it is regrettable that insecurity is now the new trend manifesting from various crimes such as kidnapping, banditry, terrorism, ritualism, just to mention but few, which is becoming very rampant and gradually taken over the whole attention of governments at the centre, state and local levels.

 

As a stakeholder in the state, particularly Oke-Padi community, St. Mary Cathedral found it essential to employ every legal means to ensure the safety of lives and properties of her parishioners, worshippers and clergy, including pupils and staff of St. Mary Catholic Model School, domiciled within the Church’s compound.

 

On Monday, 8th December, 2025, the Cathedral community organized a press briefing to address the state of insecurity within the surroundings of the parish, especially at the frontage of the Church, caused by illegal and indiscriminate parking, loading and offloading of passengers and goods by Micra, Tri-cycle and Motor Cyclists, popularly known as Okada riders. This illegality, which has strived for so many years, not only contributed to insecurity of the parish, but also took a major share in making the environment unkept, unhygienic and hazardous to the health and wellbeing of parishioners and people within the neighbourhood. 

 

At the press briefing, the Parish Pastoral Council Chairperson, Mrs Florence Olagbaju and the Parish Laity Council President Chief Cosmas Oni briefed the gentlemen of the press about various measures which the parish had employed in the past to curb the aforementioned menace by commercial vehicle operators at the frontage of the parish. They established that all efforts proved abortive due to non-compliant by the accused body.

However, after much deliberations by the Parish Security Committee, in collaboration with the Church Councils, supported by the Cathedral Administrator, the Parish sorted the intervention of the Divisional Police Headquarters at Iyaganku to erect concrete barricades which would make it almost impossible for usual illegal practices by commercial vehicle drivers to operate freely without caution at the frontage of the Cathedral.

 

Having secured the approval by the Divisional DPO, following an on-the-site inspection carried out by the station, the parish erected concrete barricades and this became unacceptable to the Park Managements operational within the environment, leading to outcry on various platforms by their members alleging that the parish has intentionally blocked them from their daily bread.

 

Furthermore, Mrs Olagbaju briefed the press that the outcry led to the issuance of 24-hour removal notice of the barricades by the Executive Chairman of Ibadan North West Local Government, coupled with unscheduled inspection to the Parish by staff of the Ministry of Environment at the State level.

 

The parish, being the Mother Church of all Catholic parishes across the Archdiocese of Ibadan, used the opportunity to call the attention of the State Government to address the matter and helped in removing illegal commercial vehicle parks created at the frontage of the Cathedral which is constituting nuisance, with immediate effect, while calling to order the Executive Chairman of Ibadan North West and Ministry of Environment in the state, to revoke the 24-hours barricades removal notice issued.

 

The Church, according to the Parish Laity Council President, Chief Cosmas Oni, is obliged to ensure the safety of lives and properties of her parishioners and every stakeholder of the Cathedral community, hence the measure taken to seek legal backing from the police before embarking on the construction of the aforementioned barricades. He however added that the Church is open to dialogue, if the accused parties are ready, but the comfortability, safety and hygienic conditions of our inhabitants which include clergy, parishioners, worshippers, pupils and staff of our school would remain essential at the table of dialogue.

 

Present at the press briefing were news correspondents and reporters from TV Continental, Fresh FM Ibadan, The Nigerian Tribune, The Vanguard Newspaper, Dominion Radio and Television Networks, African Independent Television (A.I.T), News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), The Sun newspaper, Insight Online Newspaper, and the Channels Television.