The pan Yoruba socio- political organization, Afenifere, has hailed the judgment of an Ondo State High Court, which sentenced the killers of Mrs Funke Olakunrin, daughter of the leader of the group, Pa Reuben Fasoronti to death. According to the foremost Yoruba group, the judgement unearthed the group of people carrying out various crimes in the country under the guise of being herders.
Afenifere, in a statement issued by its Secretary General, Sola Ebiseni, stated that “it is a signal to these criminals that they are neither invincible nor above the law of the land.” The statement read “though not able to bring back the dead, the judgement sentencing to death murderers of Mrs. Olufunke Olakunrin, daughter of the Afenifere Leader, Chief Reuben Fasonranti, nevertheless is most welcome in several ways. “First, the families, friends and other well-meaning citizens will have a sense of relief that justice has been done, notwithstanding that these murderers have a constitutionally guaranteed rights of appeal up to the apex court.
“For too long, it is unfortunate that the Federal Government, which monopolises the instrument of coercion and security, has told Nigerians and the world that these criminals who parade themselves as cattle rearers are above the law of the land for which they make the lives of the citizens was than in the State of nature. “In addition, this trial and the facts confirmed the common knowledge of the group predominantly involved in these dastardly attacks.” Afenifere further stated that “the Prelate of the Methodist Communion and several other kidnapped people before his, confirmed that their abductors do not even speak Hausa, but Fulude language.
“The Federal Government prefers to live in denial, while the hawks around the corridor of power accuse well-meaning Nigerians of ethnic stigmatising, a case of blaming the owner of not properly keeping his goods rather than condemning the thieves. “For whatever reason, the Buhari administration is deaf to all admonitions that centralisation of the security structure in a supposed federal system which predominant ethos is decentralization is a contradiction in terms apart from the manifest incapacity of the federal security architecture to deliver on the most fundamental issue of protecting life and property.”(Saturday Telegraph)
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