South West states can fund regional police-Odumakin(1)

1708

He has seen it all. As a foot soldier during the June 12 election annulment struggles,Yinka Odumakin,national.publicity secretary of Afenifere was in the forefront of the struggles and when democracy came in 1999,  teamed up with Afenifere to remain relevant even when the presidential candidate they supported, Olu False lost the election.
Ironically, in 2011 he was in bed with Muhammadu Buhari, then the  presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), just as  he was close to Bola Ahmed Tinubu as one of his foot soldiers until 2015 campaign threw a wedge between them. Today they are neither friend nor foe, yet in this interview by Executive, Editor,Tunde Abatan he maintained that principles separated them ,

Is it possible to stop the invasion of Yoruba land by herdsmen; people are saying the South West forests are encircled by Fulani herdsmen?.

ALSO READ: Oyedepo again? Curses murderous herdsmen

There is doubt about the fact that the South West forests are encircled and being invaded by evil forces. These marauders, many of them have been identified by victims of their terrors as Fulani bandits. They have caused untold hardship for people that today people are afraid to travel from one town to the other. Women are raped, in fact, in our communities people used to send their wives to the farms,but today, men are afraid to go to the farms not to mention sending their wives. I was told some years ago by a past governor of a South West state that there are places in the South West where you are not even sure if the children in that community are born by Yoruba fathers or Fulani fathers. We are still aware that people are being kidnapped for ransom. Chief Olu Falae was kidnapped some years ago, kept in the bush macheted and heavy ransom was paid before he was released. The abductors were caught and they were all Fulani boys and sentenced. You’ll wonder what could have happened if Yoruba boys in the north went to pick up late Adamu Ciroma, lock him up, matchet him in the bush and asked for ransom. I don’t know how many Yorubas can stay in the north. They continue to do these things, they killed Funke Olakunrin, daughter of our leader and Afenifere has not been frivolous. For us to come to conclusion that we are not engaging when her younger brother Kehinde Fasoranti got to Ore to take her corpse, some police men said she was killed by Fulani men. The driver of the vehicle said those who killed her did not leave until police came. So the situation in Yoruba land is serious. We have been a peace loving people; we are not no nuisance to anybody around. In fact ,even in the civil service in those days ,  there were Yoruba men transferred to Edo, Delta states, they did not build houses there, they come back home. We have never had any ambition to take anybody’s land or trespass on their land or to become a nuisance to anybody so why some people are doing this to us, we cannot fathom. We have not planned a jihad, since 1804 when jihadists were stopped at the battle of Osogbo.

The government in South West is now saying they want to do security……

Yes, we commend the fact that they are even responsive but Nigeria as it is will not allow them to do anything meaningful. The unitary structure we have in Nigeria today says the governors are chief security officers of their states, only in paper. The Commissioner of police of any state has to take directive from Abuja, if the governor gives the command, he will not obey. Nigeria is only federal in  name arrangement. You have only one police, in every federation you have multinational policing. The earlier our governors know that what we are tackling is serious internal colonialism the earlier it would be better for them. There is no state in the Yoruba land that is not bigger than many countries in the United Nations. Now are we in a conquest and domination agenda? There is no way enforcing their laws on us, what we need is not the kind of security we have. We need State police and that is what our governors should be demanding.

Do you think the states can fund it because they can’t even pay civil servants as and when due…

They can’t pay civil servants but they are buying equipment for the police and if you practice federalism and we go to every state taking charge of securities and taking care of themselves. How can you say the state cannot take care of their police? As it is today, the budget of Lagos State is one eighth of the national budget, So Lagos cannot fund police? If the states are allowed they can do it. If Ondo is allowed to produce its bitumen it can fund police. If Osun should be in charge of its gold it can found police? Benin Republic is a country, they have police, army. Is it richer than many of the states in the South West? It is a northern agenda that states should not be in charge.

To be concluded on Tuesday

Kindly support the growth of journalism in Nigeria

Reactions to stories published can be sent to us at [email protected]


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *