US Pan-Yoruba Group Tasks Buhari Over Insecurity
By Suyi Ayodele
POLITICS DIGEST – A United States-based Pan-Yoruba organization, the Yoruba Alliance, has called on the Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, to urgently address the security problems, which, it says, have hindered foreign investments and economic developments in the country.
The group, in a communiqué issued after its emergency meeting held in Maryland, USA, on Tuesday, February 16, 2021, suggested that the Federal Government should stop foreign herdsmen from entering Nigeria.
The communiqué endorsed by the group’s Chairman, Ogbeni Rotimi Oyekanmi and the Secretary-General, Mr Babajide Abatan, said that since the Fulani herders, who inflict bloodshed on our nation are said to be mainly foreigners, it recommended that the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service to collaborate with Inspector-General of Police and all the Service Chiefs on achieving effective enforcement of immigration laws and tight border control.
The Yoruba Alliance also recommended that a National Livestock Development Policy be initiated, to prevent the destruction of farmlands, and urged President Buhari to give serious attention to the suggestion made by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State to enact a law prohibiting the movement of cattle from the North to other parts of the country to eradicate conflicts between herdsmen and farmers.
Read Also:
It also recommended the introduction of state policing policy, just as it urged the National Assembly to amend Section 214 of the 1999 constitution to grant state governors the power to control the Commissioner of Police and officers in each state instead of taking orders directly from Abuja.
The organisation also appealed to the Federal Government to disarm all Fulani herdsmen of illegal weapons and asked the president to address the nation and openly condemn possessions of illegal weapons by these hoodlums, adding that an Executive Order is issued by the president to grant the Nigerian Police the power to arrest anyone or groups found carrying AK-47 or illegal machinery.
In addition to these, the group recommended that all kidnappers and their conspirators be prosecuted to the fullest extent permitted by law to serve as a deterrent to others.
”Unless the Federal Government takes urgent measures to stem the tide of kidnappings, banditry, terrorism and other vices, Nigeria, which, according to Global Peace Index Report, ranked 16th among the world’s most dangerous country, might slip into anarchy,” the group warned.
The group, Yoruba Alliance, is the alliance of Yoruba organizations and clubs, and also a strong voice of the Yoruba ethnic group in the Washington D.C. metro area of the United States. The group, which was registered in 1996, has a tradition of partnering with the US Embassy to pray for its motherland Nigeria yearly in the month of March. It also holds regular lectures and symposiums aimed at identifying and promoting the image of Nigeria in the United States.
Source: Tribune
