Amotekun: Buhari, Tinubu are the ones behind our trouble —Osibogun

AS someone who is passionate about the Yoruba race, what is your assessment of the security situation in the South-West region in the last few years?

Talking about security, it was at the brink: kidnapping, robbery, arson and all forms of violence. Villages in particular faced diverse forms of security threat. We discovered that there was a lot of movement away from most of our rural settlements because of the unabated aggression of herdsmen. Coupled with this, we also discovered that the style of operation of herdsmen settling down with our people changed; they had been moving down and cohabiting with our people for long without issues, but all of a sudden, like three to four years ago, we noticed that it wasn’t the peaceful coexistence like we had in the past again. There was open aggression, killing, slashing of throat, dismembering people, rape, kidnap, removing unborn babies from pregnant women and things like that. This gave us a lot of concern because it wasn’t right. The peaceful coexistence that we knew was no more. It was further discovered that there was massive movement down to the South-West. You know that ISIS moved to West Africa, so that heightened the situation and it now became a serious issue of people killing on the expressway, kidnapping for ransom etc and we knew that such operations were uncommon to the police, it was uncommon to the army and the vigilante groups. So everybody was bothered.

In the real sense, ours was more of an intervention to reawaken the people, enlighten them, if anything at all, assist in protecting their communities and I think this we have done successfully and we have made government aware of the seriousness of the situation because of the awareness given by the press and all other agencies like the Oodua Peoples’ Congress, Soludero and all other vigilante groups like Agbekoya that all rose in unity to protect the land and let the people know what is going on. The second stage is the governors in the South-West. We let them know what is going on. We sent so many videos and materials to them to let them know what was happening to their people because it was an issue all of them must take seriously. But but even as casually as they took it initially, because it wasn’t given the seriousness required initially but when it came knocking on their doors and some of them had escaped terrible fates narrowly while travelling on assignment, then Pa Fasoranti’s daughter became a victim, the governors yielded to the cries of their people and came together to find a solution. Whether it is accepted or not, they have shown that they care about their people with Operation Amotekun and now we know that the struggle is not in vain and there is a conscious effort to protect the Yoruba people. We can take the struggle from there.

What are your thoughts on Federal Government’s declaration that Operation Amotekun is illegal?

The declaration is not from the Federal Government; it is from the Attorney-General of the Federation. He speaks as a lawyer, taking his brief as a lawyer to the government. I think the logical thing is to challenge them in court. Two, it is not a declaration from the Federal Government because I do not think it has been discussed at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting; it wasn’t discussed at FEC, so what they are doing and that decision is what is illegal. What they are supposed to do by the constitution is to present it at the FEC meeting before taking any decision. But the good thing is that Operation Amotekun has united the Yoruba race more than ever, this is another time that the Yoruba race is being united by issue of oppression and we are coming together as a whole, irrespective of status, religion or political affiliation to say we all stand by one thing which is Amotekun. And I think this is because Amotekun is not just a project, it is the symbol of victory. It is the voice of freedom and it is a cry by the people to free themselves and a cry for unity. So what Malami has done is that he finally woke up the Yoruba race and we will not go to sleep again, we are going to hold on to this until justice is done by the Federal Government and we will meet them in court, because they have to rule by the provisions of the constitution and not rule based on a section of the country alone. I am saying that Amotekun cannot die. Nobody can touch it. It is a spirit. It is unbeatable and you cannot catch the air so you cannot catch Amotekun. It is the spirit of Yoruba land and it will protect the land. It will be a strange attack to those who want to attack Yoruba land.

Will you say the South-West governors got it right with Amotekun?

I will say the South-West governors have given us hope. Getting it right is getting the modus operandi: recruitment, operational features, logistics and rule of engagement because Amotekun is not supposed to be an intervention force or carrying arms. It is supposed to give information, that is the assignment. You will not see them. They only do their jobs. So, if government is going to get it right, they need to get the people who have been involved in the struggle, they should not make it a political issue. They need to get people who know the terrain, who know where the people are. Those who have spent time, energy and money gathering information. That is the only time they can get it right. It is not the name you give a child that makes him succeed; you can’t think that because you name a child Bankole, he will automatically build a house for you. Amotekun is a name, but it is also a need now in Yoruba land, because so many people have assumed that status. We will fare better now.

What is responsible for the sudden rise in insecurity in the South-West?

Well, the influx of armed herdsmen into Yoruba land. They are buying land all over and contesting for land in areas where they shouldn’t. Now, we have said it that no Yoruba land should be sold to any Miyetti Allah because they are stubborn, rude and insolent. They don’t care about people and they don’t care about lives. And the president has been closely associated with such organisation. It is like associating with the like of ISIS or ISWAP and he didn’t come out to say it is not true. Any government that does this is putting the lives of the people in danger. The government should do what is right; the president can put an end to this.

And this is one last time that some of us will wait for Bola Ahmed Tinubu to say something. There is ambition and there is life. If there is no life, there is no ambition. Lives of the people are being threatened and as a Yoruba leader in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), if governors have said this is where we are going, I think the leader of the party, a Yoruba man in that party, Tinubu, should come out and support his people. He should not hide behind his ambition. There are two people I will call out on this issue; the first is President Muhammadu Buhari and the second is Tinubu, who continues to play politics with the lives of the people because of his ambition in 2023. Already, he cannot win an election with the figures on the ground, because people have come into South-West and are being registered with the National Population Commission and are living here. By the time voter registration commences again, they will outnumber us, because the population of the whole area is being skewed in favour of a tribe. A tribe has permission to carry AK47 around the streets and you cannot even carry a bow and arrow. The two people who will speak before Nigeria breaks up are no other than Tinubu and President Buhari.

I do not think President Buhari sent Malami that message and he better ask him to withdraw the statement. Malami should resign; he has stirred the hornet’s nest. Tinubu and Buhari are the ones causing trouble for us.

What is the way forward for the Yoruba race?

The way forward is that we are not going to turn our youths on the street, we will not turn them to target practice for the army or ISWAP. We are going to begin the process of retraining and re-grooming our youths so that they don’t turn them into almajiris. We are going to encourage the government to assist the private sector and individuals who are interested in taking up farm settlements and vocational centres to do so to ensure that the youths on the streets doing nothing will be engaged and we will begin a process of reintegration, especially in rural areas. When rural areas begin to develop in all spheres, then herdsmen will not be able to get them. We have a warning, there should be no killing of any Yoruba man. No farm should be unsettled. We are not asking for the life of any herdsman, but if you move around, endangering the life of any Yoruba man, this is a caution, know that the land is well protected and nobody can overrun us.