Afenifere which is the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, has openly expressed worries over Nigeria’s insecurity level while decrying the fact that President Buhari might be unaware of the killings and kidnappings going on.
While condemning the kidnappings, and killings in Ogbomosho, Ondo State, Southeast, and the Northern part of the country, Afeneifere had also wondered if President Muhammadu Buhari was aware of the situation.
A statement by the organization’s National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, on Monday said the rate at which insecurity was festering; it was as though no authority could reign in the monster.
He noted that going by the country’s constitution, President Muhammadu Buhari, who is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, is the person on whose shoulder the security and welfare of Nigerians squarely lies.
According to Ajayi: “Unfortunately, we have not seen veritable indications that the C-in-C is aware of the enormity of the situation or is putting up any strategy to arrest it.”
Recalling President Buhari’s speech during this year’s Democracy Day celebration where he confessed that “I am living daily with the grief and worry for all those victims and prisoners of terrorism and kidnapping,” Afenifere spokesman submitted that the business of the Nigerian president is not to ‘grieve’ for victims of terrorism but to ensure that terrorism, kidnapping and allied crimes do not occur at all in the country.
Recall that within two weeks; there have been about three kidnappings in Ogbomoso in Oyo State, leading to the death of some victims, the beheading of five people in the South East, abduction of people in Katsina, Kaduna, Nassarawa and Niger, killing and abduction of about 15 people including Indian expatriates in Kogi State and abductions of some chiefs in Akoko area of Ondo State etc all within days.
However, Ajayi noted that “These are in addition to several of such dastardly acts that have been happening in different parts of the country with increasing ferocity.”
He also alluded to the report from Ondo State where the Amotekun corps intercepted two trucks carrying 151 young men and women.
“Ordinarily, there is nothing wrong with people moving from one part of the country to the other. But if those people were not on a satanic mission, why would they hide under bags of rice and beans? Why would they not be able to state their mission and actual destinations? They claim to have been raked from Kano, Katsina and Jigawa States to come to the South West for a mission or missions that they were not told about. Afenifere commends the efforts of the Ondo State government and Amotekun officers for the gallant work they are doing.
“Equally important, President Muhammadu Buhari needs to come out and let perpetrators of terrorism and kidnapping know that he has had enough. He should let them realize that the pact he signed with Nigerians was not to come and see to the serial termination of their lives but to ensure their security, improve their welfare and move the nation to a desirable next level. Unfortunately, the president has not been able to deliver on any of the desirables. He only brought to the nation, the negatives which were far from the expectation of anybody.”
Ajayi lamented that due to the kid-glove manner with which the government is dealing with them, “terrorists and kidnappers have been so emboldened that they now attack security institutions at will and malevolently go into houses of their victims to deal with fellow Nigerians – all under the watch of government and security agencies.”