We Don’t Want IDPs Camps In South, Afenifere Tells FG, States

Pan Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has called on the federal and state governments to put a halt to the rising insecurity breaches across the country to prevent the establishment of camps for the Internally Displaced People in the southern part of the country as seen in parts of the north.

Afenifere in a statement issued by its national publicity secretary, Jare Ajayi, observed that the spate of attacks on communities and individuals in the South had been escalated thus engendering fears in the people in regard to their personal safety.

The group urged the state governors to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari and leadership of the National Assembly on the need to establish state police “as a matter of urgent necessity”.

According to the statement, “From all indications, state governors have a lot of clout because the constitution invests them with a lot of powers. They should, as chief security officers of their respective states, impress upon the powers that be in Abuja that the country is now in such a serious crossroads security-wise that they must be allowed to take the bull by the horn. They can do this by having state police,”the statement reads.

Afenifere added that should the governors in all the 36 states of the country could not agree on the matter, governors in the South should go to Abuja to get that done as “there is no other way”.

It noted that reports of armed attacks on communities, religious places, farmlands and sometimes homes occur almost every week if not daily in different parts of the country.

“Such used to be restricted to the north, north-east especially. But today, it has spread even to the South which used to be safe.”

It would be recalled that the displacement of people by terrorists and militias led to the setting up of camps for those who survived attacks on their settlements.

Afenifere noted that reports have it that people running into millions are in various Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs’) Camps in different parts of some northern states.

It explained that some dwellers in some communities have to be paying ransom or levy to terrorists for them to be allowed to stay and earn a living.

“Farmers are more affected hence the high prices of foodstuffs as fewer people are able to cultivate farmlands and harvest their farm products,” they said.