The Council of Yoruba Elders (CYE), has called for urgent intervention by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over the recent reoccurrence of insecurity challenges in the south-west region of the country.
The group also condemned the high cost of food items and other essential commodities on the market, which has made life more unbearable for Nigerians, stating that ‘as the new voice for the Yoruba people of Yorubaland, we cannot feign ignorance of the cries our people are inundating us with on daily basis.’
Yoruba socio-cultural group, Council of Yoruba Elders (CYE), yesterday raised an alarm over what it described as the recent reoccurrence of security challenges in the South-west region of the country, calling for urgent intervention of President Bola Tinubu’s government.
This is just as it condemned the high cost of food items and other essential commodities “which has made life more unbearable for Nigerians.”
The Secretary General of the group, Dr. Victor Taiwo, while addressing journalists in Ibadan, Oyo State yesterday, said the group is inundated daily with reports of herdsmen attacks on farmers, ravaging of plantation fields, abductions of people for ransom by bandits and indiscriminate killings of people, most especially in Ondo and Oyo States respectively, lamenting that the attacks have become a nightmare to the people.
According to him, “It was a kind of relief for us when we witnessed a reduction in the menace immediately after the government changed hands in May 2023, but quite unfortunately, what we are witnessing now is a high-profile resurgence. It is also an understatement to say armed robbers are literally on the rampage in the land.”
He said: “You can imagine that widely published sad occurrence of the gruesome murder of a 62-year-old grandmother, Iyanuoluwa Adamolekun, of Similoluwa area, Agbaluku Arigidi Akoko in Ondo State. We also have in our record the kidnap incidents in Saki, Okaka and Ipapo, Oke-ogun axis of Oyo State. So, within a month, we have Fulani herders’ attacks on farmers in Afon, Ipokia, Ogun State, Iwere-Ile, Komu and Otu in Oyo State.
“We also heard about the killing of Rev. David Musa of the ECWA in Obajana, Kogi State, on October 14, 2023, and also the abduction of about 15 church members in Ondo State in September. All these challenges should be critically looked into by the president before it escalates into something else.”
On the level of inflation in the country, Taiwo blamed it on insecurity issues across the country and the fuel subsidy removal.
He noted that attacks on farmers in the Southwest region and the fuel subsidy removal resulted in high cost of food items in the markets, stating that the Fulani herders through a series of attacks are preventing farmers from freely accessing their farms and this naturally led to a deficit in food items and high costs of food items.
According to him, “The high cost of transportation due to the removal of fuel subsidy has also contributed a lot to the high cost of essential commodities in our markets and Nigerians are finding it so difficult to maintain their three square meals on a daily basis.
“We reviewed the state of the economy and it is very lamentable that what the suffering masses are passing through is fast becoming unbearable so much that the rate of deaths by suicide due to hunger and hopelessness is quite unprecedented in the history of this country. The rate at which inflation on foods and general goods and services is skyrocketing is very much disturbing to the nerves so much that deaths by hunger are no more news to the ear.”
“The rate of unemployment in the country has literally become paradoxically the norm and terribly alarming.
So, out of sheer hopelessness for our youths at securing employment, they find solace or alternative means of survival in Yahoo businesses, kidnapping of their fellow citizens for ransom, and several other criminal activities.”
“For all that is obvious, since the so-called fuel subsidy was removed by the government, the loop effect has been too telling on the general economic life of the people. And yet all efforts by the government to ease the hardship have not effected any positive change in the lives of the people but rather excruciating agony.”
…“Now, as the new voice for the Yoruba people of Yorubaland, we cannot feign ignorance of the cries our people are inundating us with on daily basis. What is, therefore, the way out for our people in Yorubaland suffering in the midst of plenty? So, we are using this opportunity to call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to find a lasting solution to all these issues at hand for our people to truly have rest of mind,” he added.
