Yorubaland still under siege – Afenifere

Wed, Jun 26, 2019 | By publisher


Politics

THE General Assembly meeting of the Afenifere has said that it was overwhelmed by reports of traumatization of “our people by Fulani herdsmen/kidnappers/militia all across the six states in the zone as well as Kwara and Kogi States”.

A communique issued after the meeting by Yinka Odumakin, the National Publicity Secretary of the group noted that all the reports provided clear indications of failure of state as the security forces have largely incapable or unwilling to safeguard the lives of our people against these criminals.

“We are not aware of any of them that has been arrested or is under trial at the moment just as all the Federal Government has done so far is to make excuses for the Boko Haram and Miyetti Allah groups that have been accused of so many crimes against the people of Nigeria,” it said.

“It is against this backdrop that the meeting was scandalized by the opportunistic and provocative utterances of Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo in New York on Sunday dismissing the danger we are faced in Yorubaland as well as by other zones in Nigeria as being “politically motivated.

“As if he is unaware that we are in a digital world, which explains why America and Britain have issued travel directives to their citizens not travel to more than 23 states of Nigeria, the VP without much thought for his integrity stated “With respect to general kidnapping which we have seen in parts of the country, again, this is not entirely new. In fact, some of the kidnapping stories you read or listen to are simply not true anywhere, some are fueled by politics,” the communique said.

The meeting, according to the communique, “frowned at the unfortunate comments by the Vice President who shames the Yoruba people with his very cheap politicking with the lives of Nigerians”.

The group warned that as a people who cannot continue to bear what is going on and we believe it is so with so many communities in Nigeria, meeting and reiterated its earlier call on “Mr. President to separate the office of the President of Nigeria which he occupies from being also the grand patron of Miyetti Allah, which we suspect makes it very difficult for security agents to go after members of this group whenever they commit or are accused of crimes”.

The group demanded immediate enforcement of law and order as an urgent measure to flush out these criminal elements from our society  and that immediate steps should be taken to rework Nigeria to take it back to the practise of FEDERALISM so that every federating unit can have their police to secure their environment.

“In order to cut the production line of criminals and bandits we must have the practice of Federalism in many key spheres, especially the economy so that all federating units must have the rights to tap whatever is under their soil so that new corridors of prosperity are created to eradicate the massive unemployment in the county so we can cease to be the headquarters of poverty,” the group said.

– June 26, 2018 @ 9:59 GMT |

Tags: