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THE pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, yesterday, described the handling of the security situation in Nigeria by the Federal Government as tantamount to ceding the country into the hands of terrorists adding that Nigerians now live in fear and uncertainty.
Afenifere, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Jare Ajayi, described Garba Shehu’s remarks that terrorists ‘deceived’ the government into releasing his wife and children without releasing victims of the Abuja-Kaduna train as “very unfortunate and an admission of failure” as a government.
Ajayi said: “Since the government is expected to possess superior power in virtually everything than any others in a country because the primary responsibilities of the government are the provision of security and welfare for the people and because the present administration has failed to provide either security or welfare for the people of Nigeria in recent times, one may not be wrong to state that President Buhari’s government greatly lost the confidence, trust and hope that were invested in it at inception. It is a pity.
“The manner insecurity issue is being handled is, unfortunately, lending credence to the views of those who are alleging that there could be a hidden agenda to these issues of banditry, kidnapping and terrorism, otherwise, the government would have been more decisive in the way it tackles the monster that is fast eroding the very essence of our being.”
Regretting the level to which insecurity, terrorism, kidnapping and needless loss of precious lives have degenerated in the country, Ajayi said that killings of students and others in the South West as well as other parts of the country are very troubling and disturbing to “us in Afenifere and to us in Yorubaland as a whole as it is for all well-meaning Nigerians.
“Afenifere urges President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently “put a stop to the needless sacrifice of lives of innocent Nigerians by terrorists.”
Meanwhile, Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, yesterday, vowed that there will be no hiding place for criminals in the state, just as he revealed that a 17-year-old kidnap victim, Akinlaja Ireoluwa Oluwatomiwa, has escaped from captivity.
Governor Abiodun, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Kunle Somorin, said the victim, who was kidnapped on his way to the Redemption Camp on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, escaped from his abductors as security operatives swooped on their den in Ikorodu, Lagos.
He said: “The victim, Akinlaja Ireoluwa Oluwatomiwa is a student of the Redeemer’s University in Osun State. He was on his way to join his parents when he was kidnapped.
“Our security men had trailed the kidnappers to Ikorodu, where the victim was being held hostage. Their arrival on the scene had allowed the victim to escape from captivity.
“We are happy that the victim escaped unhurt. He has since been reunited with his parents.
