“KWARA AND BANDITRY” _MY OPINION ON THE VIRAL VIDEO OF THE_ _ARRESTED CRIMINALS_

I have carefully perused every information so far released by the Kwara State government and that of Ifelodun LG in respect of the viral video of bandits caught using Ifelodun LG patrol vehicle in far away Auchi in Edo state. Succinctly too, I have read the reactions and comments of concerned citizens and how disappointed they were at the turn of event in our darling state of harmony.

This revelation has brought forward the incompetency, inexperience and cluelessness of the people in government and how lackadaisical they have been in providing good governance to all in Kwara State.

Ideally, the State government does not have firearms in her possession and so cannot by any means give out such to the bandits but what played out in all of these is that the State government refused; out of inexperience to own the security architecture deployed to the state by the office of NSA by performing an oversight function on the personnel and firearms supplied alongside the logistics provided.

Added to this is the fact that the state government ab initio does not really want the whole world to see the devastating effects of banditry in the state and so a lot of cover-up were done which included the non disclosure that the patrol vehicle they willingly gave out to the Miyetti Allah vigilantes but later converted for criminals enterprises was not returned.

We all remembered how the survivors of the massacred Forest Guards at Oke Ode alleged that firearms were withdrawn from them a day before the attack but yet nothing was done until this arrest in far away Edo state where the name of the same officer Victor who was alleged to have retrieved the firearms under the guise of servicing resurfaced again as the person supplying firearms to these criminals.

If you juxtapose the scenario at Oke Ode with the recent event at Kebbi state where Soldiers were withdrawn few hours from the attacked school by terrorists and how the Governor took up the matter with the top echelon of the military which necessitated an high level military investigation, you will understand the place of experience in government.

One cannot really be surprised because this is what you get when a Governor surrounds himself with sycophants instead of great thinkers.

Going forward, the Kwara State government should heed the calls of her citizens to float a home grown security outfit through an act of the State House of Assembly just like Amotekun in the South West with the needed firearms to curtail the activity of these terrorists.

Enough of cover-up! Ifelodun Local Government is under a serious siege with many villages and towns deserted with no hope of returning home soon.

Johnson Balogun, the Kwara Redemption Movement coordinator for Ifelodun LG writes from Okeesi, Oro Ago district.