…From Oyo, Ondo states
Chairman of South-West Governors’ Forum and Ondo State governor, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, and his Oyo State counterpart, Engr. Seyi Makinde, had exclusive sessions with President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, at which they briefed the president on the security situation in their respective states.
While Akeredolu declined comments at the end of the meeting, a statement by his Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Donald Ojogo, in Akure said he secured a presidential nod to evict criminal elements from Ondo State.
The statement read in part: “The governor met with the President and it centered on issue of security in the South West, especially Ondo State.
“It was a huge opportunity for the governor to put the records straight as regards the erroneous impression that Governor Akeredolu had asked all Fulani and herdsmen to vacate the state.
“The meeting afforded both leaders a great window to explore ingenious methods to tackle the issue of insecurity in the region.
“In particular, Governor Akeredolu sought, and indeed, obtained the President’s support and encouragement to flush out criminals in (from) the forests of Ondo State.”
Makinde said owing to the huge size of Oyo State – measuring 29,000 square kilometers – the two existing mobile police squadrons are inadequate, hence he requested for more formations to beef up security in the State.
He said: “One of the issues I discussed with Mr. President is that Oyo State’s land mass is quite big. It is close to 29,000 square kilometers. If you take all the states in the South East geo-political zone of Nigeria, they are still not as big as Oyo. And the State right now only has two mobile police squadrons.
“So I requested for more squadrons to be deployed to Oyo State and also ask for support for the joint security outfit, because the underlying issue here has to do with limited opportunities,” he added.