Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams, has berated South West governors over their reluctant attitude to the issue of insecurity in the zone, saying security of lives and property is germane to economic, human growth and general development.
Adams, while speaking with journalists on the sideline of a security summit tagged, “South West Security Stakeholder’s Group”, organised by the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, said before insecurity became unbearable in the region, he had written letters to all the governors and traditional rulers on the need to prepare ahead but they were adamant until the situation got out of control.
According to him, herdsmen had been living in the region for long going about their cow rearing business without any blemishes until the recent past when some criminals came.
He disclosed that the need to get rid of the criminals in the region informed his decision to commence the South West Security Stakeholder’s Group meeting with the first one held in Lagos, second one in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
He said the meeting would move to Osun, Ondo, Ekiti and Ogun states respectively later.
He said, “Before now I had foreseen that the insecurity confronting some parts of the country would extend to South West; I took pain to write our governors and traditional rulers but no response from them.
“Now that the issue is becoming unbearable, they are looking for way forward. I learnt from grapevine that some of our governors are waiting for approval from the Presidency to involve private security.
“North East has its own private security outfit that is complementing the effort of Nigerian Army and Nigeria Police. Even in some parts of North West, there are private outfits. There is Hisba in Kano which has been in existence for long, complementing the efforts of law enforcement agencies on Sharia law.
“If our governors are too reluctant to act, we as a group and private security outfit will unite and organise ourselves to send warning signal to these criminals that South West is no more safe for them.
“We shall continue to organise ourselves, unite all other socio-cultural and socio-political organizations, including our traditional leaders and political leaders so that we can start speaking with one voice until the South West governors are ready for us.”
