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From Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
The pan-Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere has called for speedy passage of the State Police Bill currently before the National Assembly.
The group met at the Akure, Ondo State residence of its leader, Chief Ruben Fasoranti yesterday.
In a communique issued at the end of the meeting and signed by the group’s Publicity Secretary, Mr. Jare Ajayi, Afenifere lamented the spate of insecurity in the country, especially the recent abduction of school children and teachers in Orire Local Government Area of Oyo State.
According to the communique, Afenifere deeply sympathized with families of victims of the abductions and urged the authorities to work harder at ensuring that the abductees are freed soonest.
The communique read: “It’s about 50 days now that the incident in Oriire local government area occurred. It is a big pity that the victims have not been rescued up till now. We feel highly disturbed that these innocent Nigerians are going through avoidable trauma. Actions must be expedited to get them out of the den of the bandits as quickly as possible.
“Afenifere congratulated the federal government under President Ahmed Bola Tinubu for sending the bill on the establishment of State Police to the National Assembly. The body also lauded the Legislature for wanting to pass the Bill expeditiously.
“However, there are some areas in the Bill that need to be reviewed. Areas that tend to make the proposed State Police appendages of the federal government. In other words, there are clauses in the Bill that tend to strengthen the stronghold of the federal government on state police rather than liberalizing it.
“Afenifere maintained that what the National Assembly and the State Legislatures need to do is to place Policing on the Concurrent List.
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“The meeting, for the umpteenth time, called on governors of the Yoruba states (including Kogi and Kwara) to take more decisive actions on insecurity that seems to be imperiling free movement in parts of Yorubaland among others.
“The meeting received the news of the attacks on some hostels of the Osun State University (UNIOSUN) with shock. We are shocked to learn that the attacks were allegedly carried out by army recruits from the Nigerian Army Depot, Osogbo, Osun State. As reported, the attacks resulted in robbing the students, man-handling some of them and inappropriately harassing some female students.
“It is gratifying to note that at least five of the recruits have been arrested as suspects. Afenifere is calling on the authorities to dig to the root of this incident with a view to ensuring that such a thing does not happen anywhere anymore.
“The body is highly disturbed in noting that this happened not from the notorious bandits that we have always heard about but from the hands of young Nigerians being trained to go and protect the citizens and defend their country. It is therefore very important to bring the heavy hands of the law on them as they are likely to constitute a great danger to society. This incident also calls for proper rejigging of how candidates for positions in our security agencies are recruited and trained.
“The meeting reviewed what is going on on the political terrain as we approach the 2027 general elections and called on politicians and political players to go about their electioneering processes in a peaceful manner. It decried a situation in which thuggery occasioning losses of lives occurred. Afenifere warned that electioneering should be devoid of violence, thuggery and character assassination.
“The meeting took note of the efforts of the military and other security agencies on security issues in the land. It commended the gallantry of our soldiers and commiserated with the federal government, the military and families of gallant soldiers and other security officers who lost their lives or got wounded in the process of defending the nation. The body then recommended that:
“Security agencies be further strengthened with more equipment, morale boosting, enhancement of kinetic and non-kinetic security measures.
Government and security agencies, including the military, should look inward as insecurity continues to fester because there are internal collaborators.
“Such searchlight should also be beamed on local communities as there are collaborators among them as well. By the same token, sponsors of illegal mining should also be profiled as there seems to be allegations that people are being forced out of their lands only for mining to be taking place in the area almost immediately after the people were displaced by bandits,” the communique added.
