Afenifere Demands Tougher Action On Insecurity, Urges Southwest Governors To Unite
Afenifere urges decisive action against banditry and calls for stronger Southwest collaboration to tackle insecurity.
Afenifere urges decisive action against banditry and calls for stronger Southwest collaboration to tackle insecurity.
Afenifere has called on the federal government to be more decisive in tackling the insecurity problem in the country.It also called on the Southwest governors to come together to secure the region.
National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, in a statement, lamented that the failure of northern governments and leaders to rein in bandits in their midst was creating problems for people in the south including Yorubaland.
Ajayi noted that the antics of the leaders in the north “is making efforts at tackling insecurity in the South a herculean task”.
He added: “The terror acts occurring in the Southwest are being perpetrated by bandits from the northern part of the country as attested to even by security chiefs.
“For banditry and related insecurity acts to be stopped in Nigeria, there is the urgent need to take prompt steps against the perpetrators of these heinous crimes and their sponsors wherever they are.”
Ajayi pointed out that the abductions of school children in Oyo and BornoStates over a month ago put a serious slur on what would have been a joyous celebration of the 27th uninterrupted civil rule in Nigeria.
He added that the monarch of Odo-Oriya, Oba Adeniyi Adelana in OwoLocal Government Area of Ondo State was, on Sunday night, abducted right in his palace while his wife was shot at.
In a similar gory situation, Ajayi said bandits also struck in Igbeti-Igboho-Kisi area of Oyo State over the weekend killing at least two people.
“Only on Tuesday night, a family was attacked in its home at Igbope, Oorelope Local Government Area of Oyo State.
“The family’s head, Mr. Ismail Aderoju popularly known as Al-Iklas, escaped being abducted but with a gunshot. Unfortunately, his wife, Kuburah, his two year-old child and three of his workers were abducted.”
Ajayi emphasised that the rate at which royal fathers were being abducted or killed in Yorubaland was very embarrassing as much as it was disturbing.
He noted: “It is embarrassing because our Obas who used to be the symbol of authority and power are being so plucked like lame ducks. Disturbing because the message such is sending seems to be a mockery of our very existence.
“It is as though the bandits are saying, ‘if we can so easily remove your leaders, what difficulty would we have to grab anyone of you that we set our hands upon?”
Ajayi recalled that since January 2024 when bandits ambushed the convoy of three monarchs returning from a security meeting and killed two of them, Oba Olatunde Samuel Olushola (Onimojo of Imojo-Ekiti) and Oba David Babatunde Ogunsakin (Elesun of Esun-Ekiti) and the invasion of Olukoro of Koro palace where they killed Oba Segun Aremu the following month, Afenifere has almost lost count of traditional rulers who had either been killed or abducted by bandits.
He said the situation was so serious that over 30 rulers in Kwara State had abandoned their palaces.
“The humiliation is not confined to traditional rulers. Top army brass havefallen victims. Among such were the former army spokesman, retired General Rabe Abubakar who was abducted along with his wife.
“The General died in his captors’ den while his wife was shot at when soldiers bombarded the bandits to rescue her after the burial of her husband.
“The General’s death in terrorists’ den is a sad commentary of our security situation as was the audacity of bandits to even operate in broad daylight in cities as exemplified by the abduction of Mrs Olaide John-Paul and her twin sons in Ibadan penultimate week.
“By ascribing the cause of the General’s death to nature, the Katsina government is giving the bandits an alibi to continue to perpetrate their evil acts.”
Chuks Okocha, Emmanuel Addeh, Adedayo Akinwale, Hammed Shittu, Wale Igbintade, Sunday Ehigiator and Felix Omoh-Asun
