The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has expressed displeasure over the rising cases of kidnapping and terror attacks in Yorubaland and other parts of the country.
The organisation’s feeling was contained in a statement issued yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.
According to the organisation, the fact that incidents of terror attacks, including kidnappings, are occurring virtually every day in various parts of the country is giving Afenifere a lot of concern.
“Before now, reports of incidents of this nature used to be from other climes. But these days, the horrendous incidents are also occurring in Yorubaland of Oyo, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo, Kwara, and parts of Kogi.
“We are deeply concerned about this, just as we are uncomfortable with the sacking of communities, kidnapping, killing, livestock rustling, arson, and maiming of people in some other parts of the country, particularly in Plateau, Benue, Niger, Nasarawa, Katsina, Borno, Bauchi, Kaduna, and the Federal Capital Territory, to mention a few”, he said.
Ajayi submitted that Afenifere has, for years, been drawing attention to the then incipient banditry before it escalated into pure terrorism, sacking of communities, and direct attacks on military bases and police stations.
“Recall that Afenifere first made this call as far back as 2021, when some youth corps members were attacked by bandits. Recent happenings impel us to reiterate our earlier call in this respect. No Nigerian or anybody else deserves to be kidnapped or killed extra-judicially”, he stressed.
Noting that most attacks on communities are carried out by bandits using motor bikes, Ajayi submitted that the failure of security forces to tackle them tends to vindicate Afenifere’s postulation that the battle against terrorism and banditry has not been won. According to him, the battle has not been won because of the complicity of some unscrupulous people within the security service, powerful people in the community, and in government circles.
On the mechanism to tackle banditry and terrorism generally, Afenifere spokesman maintained that non-kinetic methods should be hyped more than is presently being done.
