Mr. Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo State, says that said undocumented foreigners are behind the rising wave of insecurity in the state.
He has therefore warned traditional rulers against allocating land to foreigners in their domains without proper documentation,.
Makinde disclosed this through a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Taiwo Adisa, pointing out that his administration would ensure that foreigners in the state were properly documented very soon.
The governor spoke against the backdrop of rising insecurity in Oyo, characterised by kidnapping, armed robbery and other violent crimes.
Of late, there have been clashes between the western region security network codenamed Amoteken and cattle herders, some of whom are kidnappers in disguise.
Oyo’s experience mirrors Nigeria’s general malaise, with a general level of insecurity that now constrains citizens from moving freely within the country. Travellers are waylaid and kidnapped on the highways, and are only released after ransom is paid. Some victims are killed in the process, sometimes even after ransom has been paid.
Makinde had alleged last December that fighters from Mali, were making serious attempts to cross into the state from the Saki border.
“The governor equally warned traditional rulers and village heads against allocating lands to undocumented foreigners, stating that some undocumented individuals had been contributing to insecurity in the state.
“So, we are going to provide some documentation for them. Those who work in the mining site will be documented and a task force is being set up to do this,” he said.
He added the motorcyclists, popularly known as Okada riders, would be registered to be able to monitor them but threatened that their operations would be regulated if their leaders failed to get them registered.
“But if they would not register their people, we will be left with no choice than to just regulate the hours in which they operate. So, I am hopeful that they will cooperate with us by getting their people registered,” he added.
Makinde said the state government had observed the frosty relationship between the police and Amotekun, noting that this would be addressed to make the two work better.
“Amotekun is not operating in a vacuum. They are a creation of the law of the state. The Nigerian Police is a creation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is normal that we have inter and intra- agency friction where possible, but we will get everybody together and seek alignment towards the same end basically,” he said.
