Chairman of the South-Western Security Network code-named ‘Amotekun’ in Oyo State, Col. Kunle Togun has alleged that most Okada riders in the state are kidnappers’ spies.
Togun described the spies as “foreigners” who entered Yoruba land through the country’s porous borders and can only speak french.
He added that Governor Seyi Makinde’s order for monarchs to stop allocating land to herdsmen with no papers showing Nigerian nationality, would reduce killing and kidnapping in Yoruba land if heeded.
The Amotekun Chairman said;
“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.”
