The Oyo State Governor, Engr Seyi Makinde earlier today hosted his fellow Southwest governors, some first-class traditional rulers in the zone and top security officers from the Nigerian Police force for a high powered security meeting held at the executive council chamber of the Oyo state Governor’s office, Secretariat, Ibadan, the state capital.
The meeting which started at about 3 pm had in attendance; Gov Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, Gov Dapo Abiodun of Ogun, Gov Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State and the host governor, Engr Seyi Makinde of Oyo State.
Among the traditional rulers who participated are the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi; Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi; Akarigbo of Remo, Oba Babatunde Ajayi; Olugbo of Ugbo kingdom, Fedrick Akinrutan; Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Saliu Adetunji and Olugbon of Orile gbọn, Oba Francis Alao.
The Deputy Inspector General of Police, in charge of Southwest, Mr David Folawuyo, the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Mrs Ngozi Onadeko and other heads of security agencies in Oyo state were also in attendance.
However, the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Prof Ibrahim Gambari; Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu and the Director-General of the DSS, Yusuf Bishi who were expected at the meeting couldn’t make the journey due to bad weather.
While briefing state house correspondents on the resolution of the closed-door security meeting, the Chairman of the South West Governors Forum, Rotimi Akeredolu, explained that the Southwest governors resolved to secure forest reserves in their states and get rid of bandits hibernating there.
He said, “Following our discussion, we all agreed that the time is now that we support the decision of the National Economic Council, NEC about forest management.
We believe that all the states in the country should be in a position to manage their forests and that would give enough room to determine those in the forest and what purpose those in the forests are serving and in a situation where you have people staying in the forests illegally, the state should be able to take steps to preserve our forests.”
Gov Akeredolu maintained that the country’s borders are so porous and hinted that the Southwest governors are set to synergize with the federal government in addressing the menace.
He said, “We all agreed that our borders have become too porous and that we need to take urgent steps to prevent foreigners or foreign herdsmen from coming into this country without any form of caution.
“We agreed to take steps to tighten our borders’ security.”
He concluded by saying that the governors have also agreed to give support to cattle breeders through commercialisation in a bid to prevent open grazing.
“We also discussed the fact that all of us believe that the time has come for a need for the government to support cattle breeding and that one of the ways to support cattle breeding is to adopt commercialisation”, he concluded.
Gov Makinde, South-West Governors, Traditional Rulers, Others Hold Closed-door Security Meeting in Ibadan (Updated)

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