Toggle theme Residents Cry Out As Insecurity Spreads To South-west, Slam Tinubu’s Silence -

 Residents of Nigeria’s South-West geopolitical zone have raised the alarm over the worsening security situation in the region, declaring that the once relatively peaceful zone is “no longer safe” as bandits, kidnappers and armed robbers now operate with near impunity.

In a viral video interview conducted by People First Advocacy, a civil society group, distraught residents from various communities across Ogun, Oyo and Ondo states bitterly lamented the surge in kidnappings, highway robberies and farmer-herder clashes that have claimed lives and disrupted economic activities in recent months.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e75k5e9O3n8

“No part of Nigeria is safe again, not even the South-West that used to be the most peaceful,” a middle-aged trader in Ijebu-Ode said. “Bandits are on our highways every day. People are kidnapped in broad daylight and ransom runs into millions. Where is the government?”

Another resident, a commercial driver plying the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, accused security agencies of doing little to curb the menace. “We pay taxes, we vote, yet we cannot travel in peace. Kidnappers now have camps inside our forests. If you are kidnapped today, you are on your own.”

The interviewees reserved their harshest criticism for President Bola Tinubu, a son of the South-West, whom they accused of abandoning the region to its fate despite repeated pleas for federal intervention.

“Tinubu is from this zone, yet the insecurity here is getting worse every day,” a community leader fumed.

“When the problem was in the North, we heard Amotekun this, Amotekun that. Now that bandits have entered our own backyard, everybody is quiet. Is it until they kidnap half of Lagos before the President will act?”

The residents called on the federal government to immediately deploy more security personnel to the region, clear forests being used as hideouts by criminal elements and provide Amotekun, the regional security outfit, with better funding and legal backing to confront the threats head-on.

“Enough is enough,” one woman declared. “We are tired of living in fear in our own land. The authorities must wake up and do something before it is too late.”