By Joan Yakubu
(The writer is a student of Nigerian Institute of Journalism)
It was such an adventurous moment, working on the Crime Desk under the supervision of Mrs Juliana Francis, Crime Editor and Mr Abiodun Bello, Features Editor.
I can’t do without mentioning Mr Emmanuel Tobi, with his charisma and sweet talks. He always finds a way of bringing people together, in his voice, “I appreciate you, I recognize you.”
At first, I had no idea of what it means to work on the Crime Desk, coupled with the fact that I never prepared my mind on what beat to cover during my internship, let alone where I would have it done.
But one thing is certain; I wanted a place I would gain knowledge, meet people, and work. But my colleague, Oluwadamilola Olaleye, top striker as we call her, was placed Sports Desk.
So the Crime Desk stuff was never my thing. I just had to respond in the affirmative when the Deputy Group Daily Editor, Mr Geofrey Ekenna, placed me on Crime Desk.
In short, I found the desk very interesting; it was an adventure for me. My first assignment (somehow messed up), was interviewing some sets of criminals at the parade ground. I was in despair when I heard the kind of atrocities these sets of young people committed. The odor oozing out of their bodies was really unbearable, but I had no choice than to hear them out.
Due to my softheartedness, I felt sober hearing their stories and wished they could be allowed to go free. But the law is no respecter of persons, and whosoever breached the law cannot go unpunished.
The most saddened part to me was when I heard that a young fellow there was an ex-convict and there he was again, looking, “like a Lucosade Boost.”
Through this desk, I came to an understanding that the word CRIME is a world on its own. It is sometimes funny, sometimes beyond human comprehension and sometimes you can’t just figure out why some suspects have to commit some certain crimes and sometimes helpless, because the more suspects are convicted, the more others go into crimes.
Down to the newsroom, a world to behold. Seeing everyone’s hands on deck busy with their system, that moment when everyone had to work under pressure, especially on production days.
Along sides, I joined my editor in carrying out her project YOUTH AGAINST CRIME, in line with Wole Soyinka Investigative Center of Journalism, under the scheme ‘Women Report.’
Left to me, the project was just a lit to my internship. I came to understand that the issue of crime we talk about and the victims happened to be victims by chances and circumstances. How much time does a society invest in creating awareness about these crimes and punishments? But all what we do is to sit back and fold our hands and talk and talk. We do nothing.
Increase in criminal acts is bound to happen when the younger generation have no platform to make them awareness of certain issues; but are only scared with threat of punishments, which is often not enough.
We, as individuals, have a part to play and not just the arm security agencies alone.
In the process of interviewing suspects, especially those involved in cultism, I learnt a lot. Some of them claimed to have been initiated when they attended a party with friends.
A particular boy told me that he joined because he wanted to move closer to a big brother living in their street. Now, imagine the story of 10 years old boy, who raped a two years old girl, due to watching pornography with his elder brother.
The question is how much of sexual orientation do the younger ones have?
During the project, I was opportune to speak with some sets of secondary school students on Youths and Pornography (to a point I lost my tiny voice). Times, I see myself speaking to some sets of large crowd, impacting knowledge. That day was like a dream coming true. Although, I had only just few hours to prepare for the speech. Also, meeting Papi Darlington Ajitemisan was a great privilege, especially sharing his experiences in the world of crime.
All these experiences stirred up an interest to bring up a team together and we had to organise a drug sensitization programme in my school campus, Nigerian Institute of Journalism. And again, very soon, you’ll get to see the work.
I know crime cannot be completely eradicated, but we can try, and save some youths from tomorrow’s regrets.
First Published 2018
