Afenifere: Nigeria Heading Towards Afghanistan, Kidnapping on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway Worrisome

•Condemns burning of INEC offices in Ogun, Osun

•Wants Amotekun deployed to effective security uses in South-west

Emameh Gabriel in Abuja

Foremost pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, yesterday, said the spate of kidnapping on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway was worrisome, warning that the country may be heading in the direction of Afghanistan. Afenifere gave the warning in a press statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi.

Afenifere flayed the federal government for the development in the South-west

The group bemoaned the recent attacks on some facilities belonging to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Ogun and Osun states, in another statement.

The Yoruba group called on the South-west governors to start deploying the regional security outfit, Amotekun, to effective uses, especially, in the face of the increasing threat to national security.

The statement recounted the kidnap incident near Dominion University and the Shagamu Interchange on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in the past weeks.

According to Afenifere, “Victims of the kidnaps included the former Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Professor Adigun Agbaje, and five others. Agbaje was released after payment of a ransom running into millions of naira.

“Reports also had it that suspected Fulani bandits attacked travellers on October 27, 2022, abducting five persons and killing several others. Two days after, on October 29th, seven bandits in Irele Ekiti-Oke Ako Highway in Ajoni Local Council Development Area, Ekiti State abducted four travellers.

“One of the survivors of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway kidnapping, 22-year old Aminat Taiwo, said the ‘kidnappers were more than 30; they covered their faces. They were putting on army and police uniforms’. She later added that they shot victims, whose relatives could not pay the demanded ransoms.

“On Tuesday, November 8 this year, gunmen dressed in military uniforms again attacked commuters travelling on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. The gunmen reportedly stormed the road near Sagamu Interchange Lagos, and started shooting at passengers in the 18-passenger inter-state bus.”

In another development, Afenifere expressed worries over reports of the burning of INEC offices in Abeokuta, Ogun State and Ede, Osun State at the weekend, saying, Afenifere is disturbed because the development may affect the 2023 elections.

The statement said, “Unauthorised burning of any property is condemnable by all standards. The fact that this type of arson reared its head in the South-west is unacceptable. It should be thoroughly investigated and made to be the last of such occurrence. There should be no excuse whatsoever to put the 2023 general election in jeopardy.”

Recalling the invasion of a Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, in June this year by gunmen, Afenifere cited various kidnap incidents on a farm near Ipapo and on Okaka-Otu Road both in Oke-Ogun, as well as the ones that took place in Ibarapa area of Oyo State.

It further listed various kidnap and terror attacks in Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Kwara and Lagos States and expressed the hope that efforts would quickly be made to ensure that the situation in South-west did not degenerate into what waas obtainable in some parts of the north.

Expressing fear that that kidnappers and bandits had become more daring, Afenifere, however, said it was time the “governors of the South West acted more decisively and more co-operatively to ensure that the region does not become a haven for terrorists and bandits,” and called on the federal government to show more seriousness in tackling the problem, “to prevent Nigeria from becoming another Afghanistan.”

Afenifere appealed to the “South-west governments to turn Amotekun into a strong regional outfit to protect the region,” saying, “The governors should collectively approach President Muhammadu Buhari along with the vice president to let them save their people from being enslaved by bandits.

“Drones and relevant security equipment must be purchased and deplored to quickly snuff life out of the monster that is threatening to consume us.

“Everything must be done to ensure that normalcy returns and that Nigeria does not become another region, where terrorists hold sway. South-west governors should do more!”