Afenifere Tackles Buhari over Nation’s Worsening Insecurity

Emameh Gabriel

A pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation (Afenifere), yesterday, tackled President Muhammadu Buhari over the worsening security challenges facing the nation, saying it had never been this bad in the history of the country.

The group, therefore, called for the decentralisation of the operations of the security apparatus of the state, even within the existing legal framework.

In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, Afenifere explained that the move became necessary in the face of the disturbing spate of insecurity in the land, to ensure the input of local operators in state and local governments in policing and security.

Ajayi stated that the kidnapping of seven people around Isara Remo on Lagos/Ibadan Expressway on Sunday, January 17, 2022, was another evidence that governments in Nigeria have failed in their primary duties of providing security and welfare for the people.

He also recalled how some people were on January, 8, 2022, reportedly kidnapped at Onigaari Village on the same Lagos/Ibadan Expressway just as some travellers, including a popular actress, narrowly escaped being kidnapped on the same road last Saturday.

According to Afenifere, there had been reports that some displaced terrorists in the northern part of the country led by one Belo Turji, were making incursion into Yorubaland in the western part of Nigeria.

“We recall the incessant kidnapping of, and attacks on, innocent people in Ondo, Ogun, Osun and Ekiti States. We also recall the sacking of certain villages in Imeko area of Ogun State last week,” it said.

The group noted that the “lamentations by Governors of Niger, Zamfara, Benue, Nassarawa, Borno, Kaduna, Sokoto and Katsina States on how terrorists seem to be dictating the pace in their areas ought to serve as a wake-up call for the governments and the security agencies. Unfortunately, responses to the lamentations have not shown that the federal authorities appreciate the enormity of the challenge.”

Afenifere acknowledged that President Muhammadu Buhari seemed to be aware of the security situation going by his recent expressions on the issue.

For instance, the President, it said, ordered a ‘robust’ military intervention in the wake of terrorists’ take-over’ of some local government areas in Niger State just as he asked Nigerians to put their prayers for security before God.

The latter, Afenifere said, was in a message delivered on his behalf when Governor Ganduje of Kano State hosted the head of Tijanniyah organisation world-wide in Kano last week.

According to the group, several ‘orders’ have been given by Mr President in the recent past just as Nigerians never stopped praying.

“This clearly shown that the appropriate panacea is not being applied to the scourge. And until this is done, the situation may be getting worse each passing day,” it said.