Many Okada Riders in Oyo State are Informants for Bandits, Kidnappers — Amotekun Commander

Chairman of the South-Western regional security Outfit (Amotekun) in Oyo State, Col. Kunle Togun has hinted that many of the commercial motorcyclists in the state are informants and spies for kidnappers, thieves and bandits who gained entry into the state and other adjoining Yoruba states from border loopholes.

The Amotekun Chairman while engaging men of the press at his office in Oyo State Secretariat, Agodi on Monday disclosed that many of the strangers exploited the COVID-19 lockdown thereby bypassing all entry and custom protocols.

He noted that these strange men do not understand Nigerian languages but could only communicate in the French language whenever they were arrested by operatives of Amotekun.

He said, “Most of them that were dumped here by trailers during the Covid-19 lockdown have turned to 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.”

Togun commended the Oyo state Governor; Engr. Seyi Makinde for his stern warning to traditional chiefs against allocating lands to herders with no form of identification to prove their Nationality adding that it would be a very potent measure in curbing the spate of killings and kidnapping in Yorubaland.

Similarly, he praised the governor for requesting all commercial motorcyclists in the state to register in the state’s database.

He hinted that the greedy nature of some traditional and community leaders in many Yoruba towns exposed the region to incessant attacks from familiar strangers which led to high rate of insecurity necessitating the establishment of Amotekun.

“Before Amotekun was established, the problem of Yorubaland since the invasion of the land by these herdsmen has 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 a visa but you cannot stay there for more than ninety days at a stretch, some of these people have been occupying our land for years and they are not Nigerians.”

Togun mentioned that people who are making concerted efforts to make Amotekun fail in Oyo state should be ashamed of themselves as Amotekun has come to stay.

He thereby urged Nigerians especially the Yorubas to be more proactive in reporting crimes and illegalities around their localities citing that, security is everybody’s business.