The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere has called on southwest governors to get ready to take serious action against the influx of bandits into their region.
The organisation said this in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
This is coming days after Seyi Makinde, the Oyo State Governor, disclosed that bandits are infiltrating his state.
Makinde said, “During a security briefing this morning, I learned that some bad elements from the North-West are relocating here due to military heat in their zones.”
Sharing his personal experience, the governor said when he observed his quiet birthday ceremony at Fashola near Oyo Alaafin in December 2024, he got a report that bandits camped two kilometres away from the area he was.
“During my birthday retreat in Fashola, bandits had camped less than two kilometres from where I was staying. This underscores the seriousness of the situation,” he said.
Reacting to this, Afenifere said such a revelation from a state governor should not be handled with levity.
The group, therefore, called on the six governors in the region to “as a matter of urgency, hold a meeting to map out strategies to expel the bandits from the region and to ensure that such elements do not infiltrate Yorubaland at any time again.
“For these objectives to be achieved, there is the need to carry certain groups along. These are the security agencies that will implement whatever security decisions are reached, traditional rulers and heads of local vigilantes known as ‘Ode.’”
While calling on traditional leaders in the region not to keep quiet on the matter, Ajayi urged the governors to include functional, up-to-date equipment in their strategies to combat the bandits and map out strategies to expel them from the region.
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