Worried by the spate of internal security breaches in various parts of the country in recent times, pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and political organisation, Afenifere, has asked President Bola Tinubu to issue executive orders allowing the establishing of state and local government policing in the country to stem the tide of rising security challenges.

It said, “As we have been shouting for about two years now, the President is enjoined to promptly give an Executive Order allowing state and local governments in the country to set up their own police forces as is practised in various countries. Machinery can then be set in motion for the National Assembly to quickly amend the relevant sections of the Constitution accordingly.”

National Publicity Secretary of the organisation, Jare Ajayi, in a statement Tuesday regretted that kidnappings have become a multi-billion business and called on Tinubu and the relevant security agencies to up the game in tackling the menace of kidnappings and other violent crimes across the country.

He further said, “Between July 2022 and June 2023, 3,620 people were abducted in 582 kidnap-related incidents. Reports have it that ransoms demanded was in the region of about ₦5 billion, although the estimated actual ransom payments might be less than one billion naira. However, the said amount could be higher as a result of under reporting.

“From the foregoing, there is no doubt that the incidences of kidnapping, herders/farmers clashes and other terrorists’ activities pre-dated the present Tinubu administration. It even pre-dated the immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari administration. Indeed, there was a lull immediately the new President was sworn-in on May 29, 2023. But about a month after, the monster reared its catastrophic head again leading to the death of many, maiming and traumatising several and loss of properties running into several millions of naira”.

Afenifere traced the spike in banditry, terrorism and kidnapping to the drop in the welfare of the people, the country’s struggling economy, rising inflation and high unemployment rate.

He commended the Nigerian Army over its successes in recent times in its fight against Boko Haram, and noted that the task of securing the country requires strengthening and empowering all the agencies charged with the responsibility of ensuring internal security.

He added, “It is a known fact that the Army is for the maintenance of the country’s territorial integrity while internal security is the major responsibility of the Police. Of course, sundry other bodies have been set up to compliment the efforts of the police. The efforts of the police and allied security agencies have, however, not been yielding the desired results because of the inherent structural error. As is known, the Nigerian Police as well as other security agencies are under centralised heads in the nation’s capital, meaning that these organisations are run as though Nigeria is operating a unitary system of government, and as though the country is monolithic in culture, language, mannerism, and as though the country does not have expanse of lands and water territories that cannot be easily navigated by non-natives. This means that there is an urgent need to decentralise and empower the security agencies, if the insecurity that is fast consuming the nation is to be brought under control.

“The time to do so is now, if a stop is to be put to the avoidable loss of lives, properties, declining economic activities due to fear of being kidnapped and the trauma that these acts of banditry are causing the people,” Afenifere said. (Daily Sun)

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