Afenifere lauds South West govs over joint security

By Oluseye Ojo

Governors of the six South West states have been lauded over their decision to establish a Joint Surveillance Monitoring Team ‘to oversee and coordinate security efforts across the South West region’.

The pan-Yoruba organisation, Afenifere, gave the commendation in a statement by the organisation’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr Jare Ajayi, on Friday.

Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), Ademola Adeleke (Osun), Lucky Aiyedatiwa (Ondo), and Abiodun Oyebamiji (Ekiti) had met at the Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos on Thursday, where they resolved to establish the surveillance team as well as taking steps to bring down food prices in the region.

Afenifere described the development as a good and timely move. It added: “Incidentally, a framework is already in place for them to work on. That is the South West Security Network otherwise called ‘Amotekun’. All the states in the region have Amotekun, except Lagos. What they needed to do now is not only to ensure that Lagos establishes its own but to streamline the activities of the body, equip it and boost the morale of its personnel through appropriate wages and other incentives.”

On the resolution of the governors to “implement collective measures aimed at curbing food inflation in the region”, Afenifere enjoined the governors to “focus more on ensuring that foods are produced in large quantity in their respective areas. If food items are surplus, sellers and middlemen would be forced to sell at reasonable prices. In any case, governments can even set up special areas where foods they produced can be procured by citizens as Lagos State is doing.”

He added that efforts at controlling prices of commodities without working on how the commodities would be produced in the region might be counter-productive.