Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba socio-political group, has said that the rise in kidnappings and banditry in the South-West should not be permitted. They say that tougher security measures are needed to deal with these dangers.
Today, Jare Ajayi, the group’s National Publicity Secretary, said these things on Eagle 102.5 FM’s Frontline, a public affairs show.
Ajayi was worried about the growing security problems in the area and told stakeholders not to let worries about governors perhaps misusing state police get in the way of talks about making the country’s security system stronger.
He said that while worries about the exploitation of state police systems are valid, they should not stop the government from taking the steps needed to fight violent crime.
Afenifere said in a statement that repeated attacks in Kwara State, Kogi State, and Niger State, as well as recent kidnappings in Ondo State, Ekiti State, and Oyo State, are signs of a worrying trend in security.
Ajayi said the group’s worries were caused by a number of troubling events in the South-West. He urged people to focus on the bigger goal of making the area safer.
He also talked about the recent kidnapping of a doctor and his brother in Ondo State, saying that it shows how criminal gangs in the area are becoming more daring.
“We are quite worried and upset. A lot of things happened that made us make the remark. We talked about the story of a doctor and his brother who were kidnapped in Ondo State, for example. The doctor was hurt badly, and the younger brother was killed.
“There were also repeated attacks in Akure and other sections of the region. In one example, a guy was shot while trying to stop kidnappers from taking his wife, yet they still took her. Travelers were also ambushed and taken into the jungle along the Oyo axis. Ajayi added, “All of these things happened in a short amount of time.”
Ajayi also mentioned recent security issues in Kwara State as more proof that banditry and kidnapping are moving beyond their usual areas of operation. He warned that security services need to act quickly and work together to fix the problem.
He said that the rise in attacks in communities across the state shows how criminal gangs are slowly pushing the boundaries of their activities.
“When you look at what’s going on in places like Kwara State right now, it shows that the problem is bigger than just a few isolated events.” “Communities had already warned about bandits in their forests, but no one took those warnings seriously until the attacks started happening,” Ajayi added.
“This makes it evident that ignoring information from local communities will eventually lead to problems. He remarked that the current state of affairs in Kwara is a clear sign that banditry and kidnapping are increasing and need to be stopped before they get deeply rooted.
Ajayi said that some of the increased crime in the South-West is because bandits have moved from the north, where security forces have stepped up military operations.
He claimed that a lot of the criminal groups that were forced to leave are moving to find new places to work.
“One of the reasons is that bandits are constantly being beaten up in the northern half of the country, especially in the North-West and the North-East. They are seeking for other places to do business because they are being pushed there.
“That’s why we’re seeing an increase in areas that were thought to be fairly safe in the South-West,” he said.
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