Chairman of Oyo State Command of the South-Western Security Network (SWSN) aka ‘Amotekun’, Colonel Kunle Togun (rtd), has disclosed that most commercial motorcyclists (Okada riders) in the State are spies for kidnappers and bandits that have entered Yorubaland through porous borders across the country.
He said the foreigners, allegedly ferried inside trailers into Oyo and other states during the COVID-19 lockdown, cannot speak any Nigerian language but French whenever accosted by his men.
Togun reiterated that the warning from Governor Seyi Makinde to traditional rulers to stop allocating lands to herdsmen with no papers showing Nigerian nationality would go a long way to stem the spate of killing and kidnapping in Yorubaland.
Togun said the greed of some traditional and community leaders in several Yoruba towns led to high rate of insecurity, which he said Amotekun has been curbing.
“Before Amotekun was established, the problem of Yorubaland since the invasion of the land by these herdsmen had been our traditional chiefs and leaders in Yorubaland.
“They take money, cows and cars from these people and allow them to settle and wreak havoc in their domains. I have attended meetings of Obas in Oke-Ogun and I told them to stop giving lands to foreigners.
“These herdsmen are called Bororos in Oke-Ogun and Ibarapa areas. They are not Nigerians, what is happening should not be analysed in the area of religion, it is territorial expansion.
“Their leaders argue about the ECOWAS Free Movement Law. But the one I am aware of is that, anybody from ECOWAS country can go into another ECOWAS country without visa but you cannot stay there for more than 90 days at a stretch.
“Some of these people have been occupying our land for years and they are not Nigerians. Most of them that were dumped here by trailers during the COVID-19 lockdown have turned to Okada riders.
Okada riders
“Many are carrying wheelbarrows all over the place, selling carrots, orange and the rest. The Okada riders are their spies. We have noted that and we are working on government policy that will curtail the use of these people to foment crisis in Oyo State and the Yorubaland as a whole,” he said.
The Oyo Amotekun chairman noted that Nigerians are the most security unconscious people in the world, adding that even the neighbouring Benin Republic has a database and is more secure because, according to him, security is supposed to be everybody’s business.
He said those that expected Amotekun to fail in Oyo State should be ashamed “as the outfit would continue to be the pride of all Yoruba people at home and in the Diaspora” and urged the people of the state to continue to put their trust and support in the outfit.