A two-day summit on security and livelihood in Western Nigeria by Yoruba Assembly in collaboration with Pan Yoruba Groups in Lagos has stressed the need to overhaul the nation’s security architecture to secure life and property for democracy and sustainable development in Nigeria.
Participants at the event comprising artisans and professional groups, self- determination and Pan Yoruba groups expressed worry about the state of insecurity in western Nigeria which comes in the form of kidnapping, ritual killing, murder, invasion and sacking of communities and farmlands.
In a communique issued at the of the event, signed by Adewale Adeoye, Rasaq Olokooba and Rasaq Arogundade, who are officials of the Assembly , the participants noted that the current situation has seen the most brutal forms of murder, rape, adoption, merciless killings of people on their ancestral land never before witnessed by the people since 1914.
They said these criminal activities are perpetrated by armed nomadic elements and other terrorists who thrive in blood-letting and creating a state of siege on Yoruba territories, adding that the armed terrorists are spread across South West territories without exception given the semblance of an encircled people conceived as a plot of impending armed invasion of South West territories;
They said the people are crying, in pain and agony and have almost given up due to the contempt and nonchalant attitude of politically exposed persons who have access to official or private security at public expense.
The communique noted that the Southwest is currently facing asymmetric war which may be aggravated sooner than expected, adding that several people are being killed, abducted or raped on the highways and community roads, while hundreds have been declared missing by troubled families.
They also noted that traditional institutions are not spared.
The participants expressed disappointment that calls for restructuring of the security architecture have been met with sectional resistance from supporters of the Nigeria garrison state to the peril of the people of the South West;
