A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, Hon. Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, has urged the service chiefs to be more ruthless in dealing with people involved in violent crimes in the country.
Oyintiloye said although there was no doubt that the security agencies were doing everything possible to deal with the situation, more needed to be done to stop the killings in the north and other parts of the country.
The APC chieftain made the remarks while speaking with newsmen yesterday in Osogbo.
Oyintiloye, a member of the defunct APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), expressed concern over the rise in the spate of killings by suspected bandits in Kwara, Borno, Zamfara, and Niger State, and said that heads of security agencies must take the bull by the horns and go hard on those involved in the killings and their sponsors.
The former lawmaker said Nigerians were living in fear and anxiety across the country despite the efforts of the security agencies to bring the situation under control.
He subsequently urged Service Chiefs not to rest on their oars until they succeeded in winning the war against terrorist groups in the country.
Oyintiloye also urged them to ensure they were not harbouring saboteurs and to utilise their human and material resources to crush the bandits and restore public confidence in them.
“There is no doubt that the Service Chiefs are doing their best to stop the killings by the bandits, but they need to be more ruthless with them until they quell the insurgency in our land.
“I will also urge them to look inward and fish out those who might be working against their relentless efforts to crush the activities of the terrorists in the country entirely.
“This is very important to restore public confidence in the security agencies.
“People are tired, and many of them are living in fear of the unknown due to the activities of those perpetrating violent crimes in the country,” he said.
Oyintiloye also highlighted the need for the service chiefs to involve local security networks in intelligence gathering to tackle the menace.
The party chieftain said that people, especially stakeholders living in different communities, must be engaged in intelligence gathering, noting that this would go a long way in preventing terrorist activities and their attacks.
Oyintiloye further said that the security agencies should also target the financial backbone of terrorist groups in the country to complement their efforts.
He, however, commended President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly for providing the needed support and budgetary allocation for the security agencies to reduce violent crimes in the country.
