Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has expressed serious worries and consternation on the level of insecurity in Nigeria, wondering if President Muhammadu Buhari as the nation’s Commander-In-Chief is aware of the situation at all.
Afenifere raised this concern on Monday in a statement by its spokesperson, Comrade Jare Ajayi, stating that the rate at which insecurity was festering, was as though there was no authority who could reign in the monster.
This was just as the pan-Yoruba group was quick to note that the country’s constitution identified the sitting President Buhari as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and as such the person on whose shoulder the security and welfare of Nigerians squarely lie.
“Unfortunately, we have not seen veritable indications that the C-in-C is aware of the enormity of the situation or is putting up any strategy to arrest it,” Afenifere said.
Afenifere, while recalling Buhari’s speech during this year’s Democracy Day celebration where he (Buhari) confessed that he was living daily with the grief and worry for all those victims and prisoners of terrorism and kidnapping, submitted that the business of the Nigerian president was not to “grieve” for victims of terrorism but to ensure that terrorism, kidnapping and allied crimes do not occur at all in the country.
According to the group, there have been about three kidnappings in Ogbomoso in Oyo State within two weeks, leading to the death of some victims, aside beheading of five people in the South East, abduction of people in Katsina, Kaduna, Nassarawa and Niger, as well as killing and abduction of about 15 people, including Indian expatriates in Kogi State and abductions of some chiefs in Akoko area of Ondo State, among others, all within days.
“These are in addition to several of such dastardly acts that have been happening in different parts of the country with increasing ferocity,” it said.
Afenifere equally recalled sadly the report from Ondo State where the Amotekun corps intercepted two trucks carrying 151 young men and women, noting that ordinarily, there was nothing wrong in people moving from one part of the country to the other.
“But if those people were not on a satanic mission, why would they hide under bags of rice and beans? Why would they not be able to state their mission and actual destinations?
“They claim to have been raked from Kano, Katsina and Jigawa states to come to the South West for a mission or missions that they were not told,” the group stated.
“Afenifere commends the efforts of Ondo state government and Amotekun officers for the gallant work they are doing,” it added.
The group’s spokesperson, however, lamented that due to the kid-glove manner with which the Federal Government was dealing with the terrorists and kidnappers, they had been so emboldened that they now attacked security institutions at will and malevolently go into the houses of their victims to deal with fellow Nigerians – all under the watch of government and security agencies.
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According to Afenifere, “instances that can be cited included reports that bandits on the night of Sunday, August 7, attacked and killed three persons while scores were reportedly abducted by the attackers in Bali town, headquarters of Bali Local Government Area of Taraba State,” saying that the said bandits began to raid people from house to house after overpowering the security personnel at the checkpoint, adding that four police officers were killed when gunmen attacked Agwa Divisional Police Headquarters in Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State, Nigeria’s South-east, just last Friday.
Ajayi, while conceding that the government and security agencies had been “doing one thing or the other” on insecurity ravaging the land, said that the expected result had not come because of uncoordinated strategies, among others.
He epecifically faulted the idea of re-integrating confirmed terrorists and bandits, saying “evidence had shown that such seemingly reintegrated bandits go ahead to commit crimes that are more heinous than the ones they were known for beforehand.”
Speaking further, Afenifere spokesperson further recalled presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, saying that President Buhari condemned the beheading of five people in the South East at the weekend, just as he quoted the president to have called on those who knew the culprits to name them.
“What Nigerians expect from the government is not sympathy but actions. Actions that will put a total end to the nightmare, indeed life-terminating experiences they are going through presently!” he said.
Ajayi, therefore, restated the much-vaunted position of Afenifere on the need to allow the establishment of a State Police and for the government to properly take care of the country’s security agencies generally.
“Equally important, President Muhammadu Buhari needs to come out and let perpetrators of terrorism and kidnapping know that he has had enough.
“He should let them realize that the pact he signed with Nigerians was not to come and see to the serial termination of their lives but to ensure their security, improve their welfare and move the nation to a desirable next level.
“Unfortunately, the president has not been able to deliver on any of the desirables. He only brought to the nation, the negatives which were far from the expectation of anybody,” Afenifere spokesperson sadly said.
He, therefore, called on President Buhari to demonstrate that he is still there as the Commander in Chief, adding: “Alternatively, he can delegate all the necessary authority to his vice with whom he shared a joint ticket anyway, especially given his earlier declaration that he was anxious for May 29, 2023, to come quickly.”
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