Afenifere chieftain Pa Ayo Adebanjo (left), and embattled Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari
By NewsBits
The Yoruba highest socio-cultural group, Afenifere, has expressed worry over the spike in terrorism, kidnapping, and general insecurity in the country.
The group also berated President Muhammadu Buhari for what it called his woeful performance in the discharge of his constitutional duties as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
Afenifere, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Jare Ajayi, urged the Federal Government to change “its style and confront the challenges headlong.”
The influential Yoruba organisation, however, restated its call for state and community policing, noting that it would reduce insecurity to its barest minimum.
The statement reads: “Afenifere is concerned about the spike in insecurity resulting in multiple losses of lives and properties in the country and that is why it has called on the Federal Government to change its style and confront the challenges headlong.
“This call is against the background of the latest kidnapping, terrorism and armed robbery incidents happening in various parts of Nigeria including the Southwest. Afenifere expresses regret that the government under President Muhammadu Buhari is not doing enough to stop terrorism and kidnapping incidents festering on a daily basis.
“We recall the kidnapping of about 30 children working on a farm in Mairuwa village in Katsina State, the abduction of travellers on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway including Prof Adigun Agbaje, former Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan; the killing of dozens of people in Benue State; the killing of a NECO staff by armed robbers on the campus of the University of Ibadan last week and the abduction of four travellers in Ekiti as well as the insistence of terrorists that farmers must pay them taxes before they (farmers) can access their farms in Niger and Katsina states. Farmers were also kidnapped on Iseyin-Ipapo Road in Oke ogun.
“We recall that President Buhari while presenting this year’s budget before the National Assembly, assured that insecurity would be substantially curtailed before his tenure comes to an end next year. But since then, incidents of kidnapping, banditry, terrorism etc have escalated.
“The situation became so dire that some countries have designated Nigeria as a terrorism-prone area to be kept at an arm’s length. Governments of the United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada, and Denmark have asked their citizens to stay away from Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital. To underscore the seriousness, they put to the terror indications that they saw, some of these governments are even evacuating some of their diplomatic staffers.”
