South-West Governors Ignored My Letters On Insecurity For Two Years, Says Gani Adams

The Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams, has accused governors in Nigeria’s South-West region of failing to respond to his repeated calls for collaboration to tackle worsening insecurity across the region. Adams said despite public appeals and letters sent to the governors over the past two years, there had been no response from them, even as many residents continued to blame him over rising cases of kidnapping and violent attacks affecting commercial and social activities in Yorubaland. Speaking during a public engagement, Adams lamented that many people expected him, as the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, to directly address the growing insecurity crisis, despite what he described as a lack of cooperation from state governments. “People continue to blame me, saying, ‘You are the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba Land and you refused to do something on the issue of insecurity affecting us,’” he said. He added that he had consistently pushed for a coordinated security framework involving state governments, local councils and grassroots organisations. “I have written to South West governors that there is a need for collaboration on the issue of security; all hands must be on deck to address this ugly situation, but for the past two years, they did not reply me,” Adams said. According to him, several voluntary and community-based groups were willing to support government security efforts through intelligence gathering and local mobilisation if properly engaged. He noted that about five months ago, he addressed a press conference where he stressed the need for collaboration among local councils, traditional institutions and various socio-cultural organisations, including but not limited to the Oodua People’s Congress. Adams argued that community-based security cooperation remained critical in tackling insecurity, especially at the grassroots level where many attacks occur. “It is very important that we should collaborate so that we can be useful on intelligence gathering,” he said, adding that organisations with large followings and local networks could assist authorities in addressing security threats if adequately integrated into the security architecture. The Yoruba leader, however, expressed frustration that the proposal had continued to receive little attention from the authorities despite persistent insecurity across parts of the South-West. https://x.com/channelstv/status/2056719452285067646?s=20