The Ogun-Oyo security initiative

WORRIED by growing security threats and with a view to ensuring safe border communities and inter-state travel between their two states, Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State and his Oyo State counterpart, Mr. Seyi Makinde,  resolved last week to collaborate on security matters in order to engender enduring peace and socio-economic development. The governors at the inaugural security meeting held at the Presidential Lodge, Ibara GRA, Abeokuta, said that the joint collaboration became imperative in view of the critical issues on security matters affecting the two states. According to Governor Abiodun, the meeting would further strengthen the bond existing between the two states. As he noted, Ogun is strategically located and shares borders with four other states in the South-West, namely Lagos, Oyo, Osun and Ondo, hence the need to enhance its security architecture. “The borders in the state have made the state to witness recurring security challenges. We have resolved to put an end to this, hence the need for this collaboration. The nexus between the two states on security matter will help in reducing crime rate in both Oyo and Ogun,” he added.

Also speaking at the meeting, Governor Makinde, who has left no one in doubt about the need to promote issues of collaboration between the South-West states, declared that it was time the two states and the South-West zone at large began to think about how to connect major cities across all the states so that the zone could become a corridor of development.  His words: “When I was coming and drove on that 44km road, the interchange, I told my brother that, yes, we are connecting cities within our states but we must now think beyond that. We must start thinking of how to connect major cities within our states so that when we look at the South-West zone, we see it as a corridor for development. He agreed with me 100 per cent because we have seen it in other places. I saw the estate midway between the interchange and here and people have already been moving in there. So, if one can stay there and work in Lagos or Ibadan or Abeokuta, that is how we create a development corridor. And then, there is a lot of nexus between crime and criminality and economic development.”

A communiqué issued at the end of the joint security meeting and signed by the governors read in part: “Whilst noting and commending existing measures put in place by the two governors to eradicate or at least minimise crimes and ensure peace and safety of lives and property in their respective states, the meeting noted that the shared objective of ensuring peace and security is being undermined by the criminal activities in the communities along the common boundaries of Ogun and Oyo states. The meeting agreed to implement the following initiatives in the short term. They are threat assessment and analysis along the border corridors, deployment of CCTV on the interstate highways, harmonisation and main-streaming of voluntary police and informal security outfits, and diligent prosecution of criminals to signify the resolve of the governments of both states to clamp down on criminality.”

Particularly in recent weeks, different border communities in Oyo and Ogun states have witnessed attacks by nomadic herdsmen and other outlaws who, taking advantage of the generally lax policing of the country’s borders, have maimed and killed innocent people at will, collecting ransoms running into millions of naira. Many have been brutally cut down in cold blood and women raped and traumatised beyond measure. There can be no doubt that the spate of kidnapping and killings on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway and different border communities between Ogun and Oyo States demands high-level, effective and pragmatic security measures. In this connection, we welcome the new security scheme put in place by Governors Abiodun and Makinde to secure the lives and properties of their people. For far too long, the resolve of the two states to protect their people and uphold their sanctity within the Nigerian State has been called into question by outlaws, and taking the battle to do them in very stern and uncompromising fashion is the surest way to ensure that law-abiding citizens of the two states can go to bed without any undue fear of attacks by blood-thirsty felons.

For the scheme to succeed, the two governments must do everything within their power to secure the buy-in of the affected communities. For instance, while launching Operation MESA (OP-MESA) on Friday, January 21, Governor Abiodun said the outfit would complement the existing security outfits already launched, including Amotekun and the Joint Security, Intervention Squad (JSIS) to further guarantee that we have good ambience in Ogun State and other necessary facilities, adding that the team would traverse the local governments and work closely with community development associations and traditional hunters. That is precisely the kind of thinking needed to make the Ogun-Oyo joint-border security task force to work.  Needless to say, the governors must walk the talk, ensuring that the objectives they have carefully mapped out are rigorously pursued and the expected outcomes realised. As part of measures to achieve the stated objectives, landlords and community associations should be encouraged to have a register of residents and to ensure prompt report of suspicious developments to the security agencies who, on their own, must work with synergy and cohesiveness.

We commend the two state governments on this initiative and urge them to pursue the stated objectives with steely resolve. It is cheery that party affiliation has not been allowed to inhibit the launching of the present scheme, and we urge Governors Makinde and Abiodun to keep toeing the same path of collaboration and brotherliness. The benefits are enormous.