WOLE BALOGUN, Ado Ekiti
A cleric and founder of the Hours of Mercy Prayer Ministry, Orioke Alaseyori, Ibadan, Prophet Moses Muyideen Kasali, has advised the Federal government to prepare special salaries for security outfits to be able to have the patriotic zeal to stop insecurity in Nigeria.
Kasali said the menace of herdsmen attack, which has resulted in several killings and kidnappings was becoming worrisome, adding that it would take a well-funded combined force of the police and military to arrest the situation.
He charged political leaders, led by former Lagos State governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and traditional rulers to rise to the insecurity in the South West, by mobilising the populace against banditry.
Speaking with newsmen in Odo Owa Ekiti Ftiday, Kasali appealed to the governors in the South West not to treat the alarm raised by Afenifere that the South West was under siege by herdsmen attack.
He advised the governors to begin aggressive mobilisation of all groups, including tradition rulers, security groups like Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) and vigilante groups, to be on the alert and ward off the imminent breakdown of law and order in the region.
“The highway robbery in the South West, particularly along Aramomo-Efon-Iwaraja Ondo-Akure-Ado road up to Osun State should be stopped. Lagos-Ibadan axis too is not safe; so the Federal government must do something about it.
“Wherever you go in the South West, the fear now has been that people are no longer safe because of suspected herdsmen who are daily killing the people or abducting them.
“Adequate compensations should be given to security men who are fighting at the war fronts, that is if the Federal government can’t come up with a special salaries for the security formations, which Nigerians believed is the best option.”
Kasali advised the governors in the South West to forget about party differences and work together to tame kidnapping and killings across the states in the zone.
“The South West governors must synergise to avert danger in our zone.
“The South West is known to be peaceful and home to all in this country. It is also the economic hub because of the influence of Lagos and Ibadan population.
“South West is strategic to the survival of our country, and once the area is unstable, our country will run into trouble,” he warned.