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Commercial Motorcyclists Are Spying For Bandits, Kidnappers In Oyo —Amotekun

January 18, 2021

According to the chairman of Amotekun Corps in the state, Col. Kunle Togun (retd.), the motorcyclists, many of whom are not from the state, have been contributing to the growing insecurity there.

The Oyo State chapter of the Western Nigeria Security Network, popularly known as Amotekun Corps, has said commercial motorcyclists in the state are working with kidnappers and bandits. 

According to the chairman of Amotekun Corps in the state, Col. Kunle Togun (retd.),  the motorcyclists, many of whom are not from the state, have been contributing to the growing insecurity there. 

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He said some foreigners who were taken in articulated trucks to some states, including Oyo, during the COVID-19 lockdown last year could not speak any Nigerian language. 

He said they could only speak French.

Togun hinted that the warning given by the state governor to traditional chiefs to stop allocating lands to herdsmen with no papers proving their Nigerian nationality would go a long way in stemming the spate of killings and kidnappings in Yorubaland.

Togun, who was responding to questions from reporters at his office in the State Secretariat at Agodi on Monday, said the greed of some traditional and community leaders in many Yoruba towns led to the growing insecurity, which he insisted that Amotekun had been curbing.

“Before Amotekun was established, the problem of Yorubaland since the invasion of the land by these herdsmen, has been our traditional chiefs and leaders in Yorubaland. They take money, cows and cars from these people, and allow them to settle and wreak havoc in their domains.

“I have attended meetings of Obas in Oke-Ogun and I told them to stop giving lands to foreigners. These herdsmen are called Bororos in Oke-Ogun and Ibarapa areas; they are not Nigerians. What is happening should not be analysed in the area of religion, it is territorial expansion.

“Their leaders talk about the ECOWAS Free Movement Law, but the one I am aware of is that anybody from ECOWAS country can go into another ECOWAS country without visa but you cannot stay there for more than ninety days at a stretch. Some of these people have been occupying our land for years and they are not Nigerians.

“Most of them that were dumped here by trailers during the COVID-19 lockdown have turned to Okada riders. Many are carrying wheelbarrows all over the place, selling carrots, oranges and the rest. The Okada riders are their spies; we have noted that and we are working on a government policy that will curtail the use of these people to foment crisis in Oyo State and the Yorubaland as a whole.”

Kunle Togun noted that Nigerians are the most security unconscious people in the world, saying even the neighbouring Benin Republic has a database for people and is more secure. 

He said people who expect Amotekun to fail in Oyo State should be ashamed as the outfit would continue to be the pride of all Yoruba people at home and in the diaspora. 
He urged the people of the state to continue to put their trust and support in the outfit.

Topics
Insecurity