The Chairman, South-Western Security Network code-named ‘Amotekun’ in Oyo State, Col. Kunle Togun, has said most commercial motorcyclists are spies for kidnappers and bandits.
He added that they entered Yoruba land through the country’s porous borders.
Togun said the foreigners, who were brought with trailers into Oyo State, among other Southwest states during the COVID-19 lockdown, could only speak French language.
He said the warning by Governor Seyi Makinde to monarchs to stop allocating land to herdsmen with no papers showing Nigerian nationality, would reduce killing and kidnapping in Yoruba land if heeded.
Togun, responding to questions from reporters at the state secretariat, Agodi, on Monday, said the greediness of traditional and community leaders in Yoruba land led to high rate of insecurity, which he said ‘Amotekun’ was curbing.
’
He added: “Traditional chiefs and leaders in Yoruba land take money, cows and cars from these herdsmen and allow them to settle down and wreak havoc in their domains.
“I have attended meetings of Obas in Oke-Ogun and I told them to stop giving land to foreigners. These herdsmen are called Bororos in Oke-Ogun and Ibarapa. They are not Nigerians. What is happening should not be analysed in the area of religion, it is territorial expansion.
“Their leaders argue about the ECOWAS free movement law, but the one I am aware of is that anybody from ECOWAS country can go to another ECOWAS nation without visa, but you cannot stay there for more than 90 days at a stretch. Some of these people have been occupying our land for years and they are not Nigerians.
“Most of them that were dumped here by trailers during the COVID-19 lockdown have turned to Okada riders. Many are pushing wheelbarrows all over the place, selling carrots, oranges and the rest. The Okada riders are their spies. We have noted this and we are working on government policy that will curtail the use of these people to foment trouble in Oyo State and Yoruba land as a whole.”
Togun said those expecting ‘Amotekun’ to fail in Oyo State would be disappointed , as the outfit would continue to be the pride of the Yoruba at home and in the diaspora.
He urged residents to support the corps.