The Ondo State government has disclosed that the 42 young men from the northern states who stormed Okitipupa Local Government Area of the state on Thursday would be returned because they posed a security risk to the state.

Commander of Amotekun Corps in the state, Chief Adetunji Adeleye, disclosed this on Sunday, saying the decision was in the best interest of the people.

The arrival of the 42 young men created unnecessary tension in the town which made the state government to intervene.

According to the Amotekun Commander, disclosed that an agent of the invaders claimed that they belonged to a non-governmental organisation (NGO).

He said: “In the last three days, there have been issues relating to the invasion of the state by alleged Fulani men. Our intelligence showed us the influx of some people especially to Okitipupa Local Government area of the state. So, we monitored and we found out that they converged in front of the army barracks in Okitipupa.

“They were there for a couple of hours and at that point we tried to find out what their mission is, but because they couldn’t give satisfactory explanations we moved them to our local office first in Okitipupa to try to debrief them and from the debriefing at Okitipupa, we had to move them to the state headquarters for proper debriefing.

“When they arrived, we profiled them and we found out that they are primarily from two major states, that’s Kano and Jigawa states. The mission that they claimed they came for we found out that is not too clear and upon profiling we found out that majority of them don’t even know how they got to where they got to. All they were told is they were going for training. Training for who, by who or whatsoever, they do not know.

“But from detailed investigation, we were able to narrow it down to their sponsors. The sponsors happened to also claimed that they belong to an NGO, that they contracted out the training to a consultant who was supposed to train their men. They said they were going to train them as security guards.

“Right now, we look at them as security risk to the state, and at this point, we invited the sponsors, the head of the NGO and Chairman of the board. They’ve also offered explanation. But we feel that we should let the people of Ondo State know that there is no crisis in Okitipupa Local Government. The way it was portrayed was as if some hoodlums or militants had taken over.”

The Amotekun commander reassured the people of the state that government was firmly on ground in conjunction with other security agencies.

He advised the people of the state to go about their businesses, saying, “we have ensured that our intelligence unit had covered the entire state and we’ll alert the public on any wrong move.”

State Commissioner for Information, Donald Ojogo said: “As you also witnessed, none of them was molested. The situation would have degenerated to the extent of lynching and jungle justice. It was almost getting to that point when they were seen in a suspicious manner in Okitipupa but the governor had to rise up to the occasion to ensure that they were given adequate protection so that jungle justice had to be avoided. That was one of the key points that were achieved in the last 72 hours. It was a very frightening situation.

“Ordinarily looking at the insecurity situation in the country, some of these persons would have been molested if not killed, but that is not what we want. Whatever is worth doing must be well done and we ensured as a government that they were well protected and taken care of until they were moved out of that danger zone to Akure.

“What government is trying to do today is to ensure that the way they came to the state, they will leave the state safely, peacefully and unhurt, so that when they get to their various states, they will also testify to their state government and their people that the movement that brought them to Ondo State was an unclear one and the state government had to protect them and move them back to their state.

“Also I’ve the instructions and the directive of Mr Governor to use this medium inform everybody, particularly, government officials that any security situation we found ourselves, the first point of contact must be security agencies.

“They are the only points of contact. Even me as Commissioner for Information and spokesperson of government is not authorized to speak on issues related to insecurity, no matter how insensitive it is. As long as it is security matter, we do not want anybody to speak without proper authorization.” (Daily INDEPENDENT, text, excluding headline)

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