LAGOS, JULY 19, 2016 – The Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) has described the kidnap of Oba Yushau Goriola Oseni, the Oniba of Ibaland in Lagos as a sacrilege and violation of Yoruba mores and values.Chairman, ARG, Wale Oshun condemned the kidnap of the oba along with two others on Saturday.
“ARG view the monarch’s kidnap as a sacrilege and violation of Yoruba mores and values. We note that kidnapping and violent crime have for a while become the scourge of residents close to shoreline of Southwest states,” he said.
Oshun in a statement charged Southwest governors to brace up and ensure the protection of lives in their domains as kidnapping had become the order of the day.
“ARG submits that security is at best a proactive concern and at its worst a reactive one. Consequently, the existing security framework in Nigeria, being largely reactive and unduly centralised, has never been efficient and reliable to support the policing of large parts of Nigeria in general or Southwest region in particular.
“One of the reasons the ARG has consistently been advocating the institution of state policing in conformity with federalism principles is the escalating crime rate despite the sacrificial funding of the centralised police force by respective state governments.
“We believe that security will be more efficient if state governments dedicate their resources to funding state and community policing in their respective jurisdictions. How worse should things get for Yoruba people and states before our governors realize the imperative need to work around the constitutional impediment on state policing and also, in spite of partisan bends, collaborate with one another to ensure that the security and wellbeing of their people are paid paramount attention,” he said.
Oshun asked: “Is there any reason today why the six southwest governors, and that of any other contiguous state willing to work with them, cannot come together urgently to evolve an acceptable security policy for their people?”
He said the Yoruba people were waiting, and hoped that the complete desecration of “our values and mores will not precede the precept of collaboration.”
