.commends Tinubu on State Police Bill, urges legislators, govs to expedite action on it
By Our Reporter
The pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has called on those who are threatening Mr. Sunday Adeyemo, a.k.a. Sunday Igboho, over his actions to ensure that Yorubaland is freed from banditry and terrorism to keep the peace.
Afenifere gave this position in a press statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, stating that Igboho is not threatening any particular ethnic group "but individuals and groups who are engaged in terror acts in Yorubaland."
It would be recalled that following the incidents of abductions in Igboho-Igbeti-Kisi axis of Oke-Ogun in Oyo State, the Yoruba nationalist, Mr. Sunday Adeyemo Igboho, last weekend went to his hometown, Igboho, where he issued a two-hour ultimatum to kidnappers of a pregnant woman and two others to release their victims or face some dire consequences.
Igboho also warned Fulanis who engage in such nefarious activities like kidnapping to desist just as he threatened any (Igboho/Yoruba) indigene found to be abetting such a thing, while assuring non-indigenes living in the area peacefully and harmoniously to entertain no fear.
But some notable voices in the northern part of Nigeria, including Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Coalition of Northern Groups and Concerned Fulani People of Nigeria condemned Sunday Igboho for the ultimatum and the strong words he had for unscrupulous Fulanis who engage in kidnapping and terror acts.
They went as far as asking President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Oyo State Governor, 'Seyi Makinde, to rein him on him.
Afenifere, however, stated that there is absolutely nothing wrong in the position taken by Igboho in his efforts at protecting his people, noting that calling on the authorities to deal with him borders on blackmail and an attempt to call a dog a bad name with a view to having it hanged.
"Since he was not violent in his action nor conduct himself in a manner that violates the laws of the land, calling on the authorities to deal with him borders on blackmail and an attempt to call a dog a bad name with a view to having it hanged.
"The organisation maintained that Yorubaland is one of the areas that people of northern extraction found safe and conducive for them to dwell in – to the extent that many of them have adopted the place as their abode. They have been living in those places with the natives having no problem with them.
"But the situation began to change from the moment that unscrupulous Fulani herders began to graze on farmlands of the local people. This was to be compounded by abduction and sacking of communities that began to occur in recent times.
"Those who engage in illegal mining had also been fingered as possible sponsors of terrorism as they move in to dig the ground for mineral resources as soon as they displaced the people living on those lands," Afenifere stated.
Speaking further, Afenifere stated that since such banditry and terrorism used to be common in the North and since those who had been apprehended were mostly from the North, especially Fulanis, "that is why many believe that the perpetrators of the evil are from the North."
This was just as it further recalled that top military officers had stated that those who were wreaking havoc in the Southwest were remnants of terrorists they displaced from Sambisa Forest in the North East.
The Yoruba apex organization insisted that Igboho is not directing his anger against the Fulanis as a group "but at those who are behind the dastard acts of kidnapping people, collecting ransoms and killing their victims."
The body then called on northern leaders to look inward by a way of blocking the source from which terrorists recruit members.
According to Afenifere, such sources include the millions of uneducated young ones and those who are alienated from the welfare that government ought to provide.
The group's spokesperson, however, used the opportunity to commend President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for sending the Executive Bill on the establishment of State Police to the National Assembly just as lauded the latter for passing the bill expeditiously.
While calling on the States’ Houses of Assembly in the Federation to pass the bill as soon as it gets to them, Ajayi also called on state governors to ensure that they create the police service in their respective states as soon as the law was passed.
"They should recruit people without criminal tendencies, train and equip them properly and compliment their efforts with needed technology. They should also be properly motivated in terms of remuneration and have life insurances for them," he charged.
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