General Kunle Togun (rtd), The Chairman, Western States Security Network, codenamed: Amotekun in Oyo State, has in a new alarm said commercial motorcyclists (Okada) in the state are being used as spies for kidnappers and bandits and foreigners with nefarious motives in Yoruba land, Njenje Media News reports.
According to him, the foreigners were came through trailers into Oyo State among other South Western States during the COVID-19 lockdown and it has been ascertained that they could not speak any Nigerian language, but the French language whenever they are accosted.
The Oyo Amotekun Chairman said the charge by Oyo Governor, Engr Seyi Makinde to monarchs and traditional rulers in the state to stop giving lands to herders without proof of papers of Nigerian citizenship is a step in the right direction, to control the spate of killings kidnappings and crime in Yorubaland.
The retired General was responding to questions from newsmen in his office at the state Secretariat, Ibadan Inferred that the greed of some traditional and community leaders in many Yoruba towns are partly responsible for the spike in insecurity in Yorubaland.
In his words;
“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 argue 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 a 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, orange and the rest, the Okada riders are their spies, we have noted that and we are working on government policy that will curtail the use of these people to foment crisis in Oyo State and the Yorubaland as a whole.”
