Afenifere frowns at rising insecurity, insists on state, LG police

Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, on Wednesday expressed deep worry over the increasing terrorism, kidnapping and sacking of villages, among other kinds of criminality in the country, reiterating its call for democratization of the police force by the establishment of State and Local Government Police, to stem the menace, which it said was about to consume the whole nation.

Afenifere made this call in a release made available to newsmen by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, expressing regret that the more insecurity seemed to be enveloping the country, the more the government appeared to be losing grip of how to deal with the menace.

This was just as the pan- Yoruba organization berated the National Assembly members who recently voted against the empowerment of state governments to set up state police.

Afenifere, while reiterating his call on the establishment of State and LG Police, sadly recalled the latest reports had it that many farmers in Ondo, Ekiti, Ogun, Imo, Abia, Benue and Zamfara states were kidnapped with some of them killed while communities in Kaduna, Sokoto, Borno, Niger, and Nassarawa had been sacked by gun-wielding terrorists.

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“Borno State governor, Babangana Zulum, while commiserating with his Zamfara State counterpart in Gusau, lamented that over 100,000 people have been killed by terrorists in his state in recent times. He was in Zamfara State to condole with Governor Bello Matawalle over the devastations wreaked by terrorists on lives and properties in the North-Western state last week.

“Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai early this week was close to tears when reeling out the statistics of thousands of lives of people that have been killed, maimed and turned into widows and orphans by terrorists in his state. Many poultry and crop farms in Oyo and Ogun states have been closed down as a result of constant attacks by kidnappers and armed herders.

“Even Katsina State, the birthplace of President Muhammadu Buhari, is not spared as reports coming from that state kept posting near-daily acts of insurgency and terrorism that lead to loss of lives and properties as testified to by the state governor, Bello Masari. A few hours after President Buhari arrived in Daura, Katsina State on December 14, 2021, armed gunmen invaded a government-owned secondary school in Kankara and abducted about 600 students,” Afenifere stated.

The pan- Yoruba group, while further lamenting that a lot of security personnel had lost their lives while many were wounded in the efforts to tame the monster, observed that the spate of security and safety infractions made it look like Nigeria was in the state of war.

It, therefore challenged those at the helms of affairs to be more sincere in finding effective solutions to the problem, calling on the state governors and members of the Houses of Assembly across the country, in particular, to mount pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly members to allow State Police and Local Government Police to be “if they are sincere in putting an end to the menace of insecurity and terrorism in Nigeria today.”

“The immediate strategies to end the scourge are to quickly allow states and local government councils to have their own police force, strengthen the existing security forces and motivate security personnel adequately,” the group said.

The group further called on the Federal Government to also create the atmosphere for youths in the country to be productively engaged, respect the rule of law, including fundamental rights of the Nigerian citizens as well as stop treating terrorists and bandits with kid gloves.

Speaking further, Afenifere demanded that amendment of Section 214 of the 1999 Constitution should be effected to enable states and local government councils to have their own police forces, saying taking such a step would “make the suggested strategy enduring and effective.”

According to the pan- Yoruba group, this section which made the Nigeria Police Force exclusive to the Federal Government should be reviewed to read: “The National Assembly, States Houses of Assembly and the Local Government Legislative Arm shall legislate on police and security matters in their respective areas of jurisdiction.”

Reiterating its earlier calls for the observance of true Federalism in the country, Afenifere submitted that most of the issues on the Exclusive Legislative List be reduced considerably, just as it frowned at the operators of the present Constitution for their dictatorial tendencies while blaming the said document for its unitary nature.

The group, while making its position known, said 68 items were contained in Exclusive Legislative List while only 12 were on the Concurrent List in the 1999 Constitution, positing that this meant that “only the Federal Government can act on 68 items that have to do with the lives of Nigerians while states that are closer to the people can act only on 12 items.”

“This is a big slap on the spirit of Federalism. It must be changed to vest more power on states and local government councils especially on such issues as security, natural resources, education, health, transport etc,” Afenifere advocated.

Bola Badmus