Afenifere lauds South-west govs’ plans to establish joint surveillance monitoring team

The Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and socio-political organisation, Afenifere, on Friday hailed the governors of the six states in Yoruba land on their plans to establish a joint surveillance monitoring team.

Afenifere, in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, said the planned establishment of the team “is a good and timely move.”

“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 need to do now is not only to ensure that Lagos establishes its own but also to streamline the activities of the body, equip it, and boost the morale of its personnel through appropriate wages and other incentives,” the statement read in part.

It emphasised that the governors should let it be “to actualise the decision by procuring and deploying modern equipment to detect and provide threats as well as providing the wherewithal to apprehend would-be culprits possibly before crimes are committed and certainly even after the commission of criminality.”

On the resolution of the governors to “implement collective measures aimed at curbing food inflation in the region,” Afenifere said the focus of governments in the South-west should not necessarily be on forcing foodstuff sellers to bring down the prices of food items.

“They should focus more on ensuring that foods are produced in large quantities in their respective areas. If food items are surplus, sellers and middlemen would be forced to sell at reasonable prices.”