Again, Afenifere urges Tinubu to end kidnapping

The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and political organisation, Afenifere, again, on Sunday, called on President Bola Tinubu, to urgently convene a community/stakeholders meeting to tackle the increasing kidnapping and insecurity in the country.

Afenifere, in a statement released by its National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, in Ibadan, Oyo State, submitted that the phenomenon “suggests that insiders have a hand in it.”

“By insiders, we mean people who have a relationship one way or the other with kidnap victims. In other words, the masterminds of this dastardly act, or their collaborators, could be family members, business associates, or those with whom the victim has a social relationship.

“Some security experts have also suggested that some unscrupulous security personnel might be involved, as attested to by a former General Officer Commanding, 1 Mechanized Division (Kaduna) of the Nigerian Army, Major General Ali-Keffi, in his recent letter to President Bola Tinubu.

According to the statement, they claimed that the perpetrators of the acts have informants who had or had something to do with the victims.

“A point that was also made by Nyesome Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory last week. But situations do occur where terrorists (in fake security uniforms) ambush travellers on highways such as the ones that happened on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, Abuja-Kaduna highway, Ikere-Iju-Iwaraja Routes in Ekiti State and so on and so forth,” they noted.

They claimed that people who know the citizens of the communities in question are the ones that carry out terrorist attacks, citing as examples the ones that occurred in the states of Benue, Plateau, Borno, Niger, Sokoto, and Nassarawa. “Otherwise, it would not be easy for outsiders to know how to navigate the territory,” they noted.

He further said there were indications that recent kidnapping incidents in Otu, Saki and Okaka in the Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State; abductions in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, sacking of communities in Niger State; and some other places had the signatures of insiders as conspirators or collaborators if not masterminds.

“Also in places where Fulani herders wreaked havoc, it had been ascertained, through some dwellers in these communities, that such a thing was done by those who were having or intend to have access to the land of those who innocently harboured them. In other words, hegemony and territorial taking-over were the motives.”

Ajayi stressed that Nigerians were surely anxious to see a positive turnaround to the hardships currently in the land.

Afenifere spokesperson said, “It is, however, very important that their lives and property be secured even now because it is a person who is alive and hearty that will enjoy whatever largesse that comes in ‘the near future’ to quote the president’s speech.

“The South-West, hitherto considered as relatively safe, is now a theatre of the unfortunate situation as the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Lagos State, Phillip Aivoji and a few others were kidnapped at Ogere, Ogun State on Lagos-Ibadan expressway last week Thursday when returning to Lagos.

“Early on Saturday, January 27, gunmen attacked the residence of Chairman of Oyo State Tipper, Lorry and Quarry Park Management System, Akeem Akintola, popularly known as KUSO at Ajiboye area, Omi Adio, Ibadan and whisked him away.”

He, therefore, urged President Tinubu to summon the necessary political will to arrest the very ugly situation.

“Afenifere is sure that Tinubu-led government is capable of arresting the ugly phenomenon. This is why we have been suggesting the means to achieve this.

“While that is going on, security agencies must be strengthened numerically, equipment-wise as well as in terms of remunerations and incentives – in addition to the deployment of modern technology for security purposes.

“If states and local government councils are allowed to operate police services, putting criminality, including abductions, under control would be easy. It can also be conjectured that were policing system in place at state and local government levels, the kind of unprecedented blast that occurred in Ibadan last week Tuesday would not have happened as the explosive used for the purpose would have been detected beforehand,” he concluded.

PUNCH reports that despite the increasing wave of abductions and kidnapping across the country, security experts and families of victims have said that most kidnapping incidents in the Federal Capital Territory and other parts of the country are not reported to the authorities.