…Decries Surge In Banditry, kidnapping, Warns Of Deepening Poverty
The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has expressed concern over incessant attacks and kidnapping of farmers and other innocent citizens in the southwest region of the country.
The organisation condemned the recent killing of a female farmer in Ondo State, abduction of a 33-year old poultry farmer, Mr. Ooreoluwa Osonuga in Ikenne, Ogun State, killing of four farmers in Okeogun area of Oyo State, abduction of Debo Farounbi in Ora, Osun State, among others.
Afenifere, in a statement by its national publicity secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, decried several of such incidents in various parts of Yorubaland and elsewhere in Nigeria that are unreported.
The pan-Yoruba organisation, noted that in June this year, the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) disclosed that “persistent abductions of farmers, farm workers and agribusiness investors in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo states had discouraged investment, reduced agricultural productivity and endangered the livelihoods of thousands of farming families.
According to the spokesman, during recent visits to the Oke Ogun area and the northern parts of Oyo and Ondo States, respectively, some people lamented that they had abandoned their farms for three main reasons. “One is fear of being kidnapped, second is the serious fall in prices that farmers could sell their proceeds as middlemen/middle-women (known as ‘Onibaranda’) are standing between them and direct purchasers w,hile the third reason is grazing on farmlands by unscrupulous herders despite several warnings.”
Ajayi asserted that reports from various parts of the country paint a bleak picture of agricultural practices and the risk of hunger in the coming months if insecurity is not quickly brought under control. “This was why the Yoruba socio-political body lauded President Bola Tinubu on his latest directive that a comprehensive National Threat Assessment and a rolling five-year Strategic Defense Operations Plan be formulated within 90 days for the purpose of strengthening coordination across Nigeria’s defense, intelligence, and security capabilities.
“Among the multi-layered formulae given by Afenifere for resolving banditry in Nigeria were a combination of robust military action, tighter border control, strong community policing, a stoppage to the incentives that are driving kidnapping, as well as the need for communities, security agencies and people in authority to work on their members who may be abetting bandits in one way or the other.
“Other steps suggested to be worked upon are economic reforms to enhance the purchasing power of the people, reduction in high costs of items and services, as well as ensuring that greater attention is paid to the seeming ‘ungoverned spaces’ while stringent sanctions are brought much more quickly upon those caught in the act of banditry.
While calling on the authorities at every level to buckle up in this respect, Afenifere specifically called on governors in the six states in the southwest to strengthen Amotekun, increase its personnel, provide it with modern communication tools, operational vehicles and surveillance drones; enforce anti-open grazing laws; form specialised rangers’ units to clear and patrol thick forest reserves being used by criminals as hideouts; integrate local hunters and vigilante groups into information-sharing networks and the encouragement of modern ranching.
Afenifere suggested the setting up of joint security checkpoints along porous state borders to check incoming armed groups.
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