The Southwest Zone D chapter of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) says Governor Seyi Makinde has allowed violence to thrive in Oyo State.
The association stated this in a statement signed by its Public Relations Officer, Comrade Kazeem Olalekan Israel on Wednesday.
According to him, the governor’s handling of the excesses of the Western Nigeria Security Network codenamed Amotekun is equivalent to failure.
The statement read: “The reports of the recklessness of the operatives of Western Nigeria Security Network codenamed Amotekun has gotten to us as an association and we are most angered by the fact that the Governor of Oyo State has given violence too much time to thrive in the State without any attempt to control the excesses of this security outfit. We are directing our anger at the Governor because he has explicitly declared during the inauguration of this outfit that he should be held accountable for the activities of the Amotekun operatives and we must state categorically that their conducts since establishment smacks logic and outrightly negate the rule of law.
“Governor Seyi Makinde is undoubtedly exhibiting the characteristics of a failure by allowing the Hobbesian State of nature to gain full ground in a State he is the CSO most especially by a security outfit that is under his direct supervision and control. It is infuriating that the Governor even went to the extent of surrending the hierarchical structure of this outfit to thugs, and, of special mention is one Adebisi Morufu alias Ẹ̀ṣẹ́ Murphy who heads the outfit in their Ona-Ara Local Government office stationed at Bayeku.
“We find it most insulting that despite the extra-judicial killings and other nefarious activities being perpetuated by operatives of Amotekun in the State, the Governor has been maintaining a deafening silence which could best be defined as a situation whereby a mandate has been given to this security outfit to terminate every souls in the State. The Governor need be reminded that he swore an oath to guarantee the security of lives and properties of every citizens in the State, but, his indifference towards the killings by operatives of Amotekun is most worrisome and give us a major source of concern as an association.
“It is based on the foregoing we demand that the Governor as a matter of necessity and urgency address the excesses of Amotekun operatives in the State and also reconstitute their hierarchical structure as failure to do this will be met with stiff resistance by the mass of Nigerian students in the South West. We cannot fold our arms and watch as the lives of innocent citizens most especially students are being terminated on a daily basis without recourse to the rule of law.
“It must be properly put on record that the right to life is imprescriptible and, as such, must be jealously guided by those that have been entrusted with a mandate of maintaining law and order. Failure to do this is a long walk to anarchy and lawlessness which will ultimately make the State ungovernable. So, before we totally descend to a state of perpetual anarchy, Governor Seyi Makinde and his acolytes must do the needful in addressing security challenges confronting the people of the State most especially by erasing touts from the apparatchiks of the Western Nigeria Security Network codenamed Amotekun.
“On a final note, we demand that a judicial panel be constituted to investigate the activities of Amotekun in the State most especially the recent murder of a 400Level student of Federal College of Education, Oyo (Special) affiliated to University of Ibadan and the violence meted on executives of NANS/JCC, Oyo axis amongst others.”
