The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has called on state governments in the South-West to raise the bar on security in the region.
Afenifere made the call in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, following a recent alarm raised by Governor Seyi Makinde that bandits escaping from Northern Nigeria were making camps in parts of Oyo State.
Speaking at the 2025 annual inter-faith service for workers held at the Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan, on Monday, Makinde, alerted that bandits from the North-West of Nigeria were infiltrating his state.
According to Afenifere, such a disclosure by the Chief Security Officer of a state must not be treated with levity.
The organisation called on all the governors of the South-West to, “as a matter of urgency, hold a meeting to map out strategies to expel the bandits from the region and to ensure that such elements do not infiltrate Yorubaland at any time again.
The statement said: “For these objectives to be achieved, there is the need to carry certain groups along.
“These are the security agencies that will implement whatever security decisions are reached, traditional rulers and heads of local vigilantes known as ‘Ode.’”
Afenifere added that whatever strategies that were devised should include functional up-to-date equipment for those who would be on the fields, attractive incentives and the deployment of modern technologies to assist in identifying the bandits and their hideouts.
While urging security agencies and citizens not to take the issue of security lightly, Ajayi said traditional rulers and community leaders in Yorubaland should not keep quiet whenever they noticed any indication of security threat.
