The Oyo Global Forum (OGF) condemns the Tuesday night attack in the Old Oyo National Park that claimed the lives of five rangers, including two confirmed indigenes of Oyo Federal Constituency. This incident shows clearly that the armed threat traveling southward from the north is no longer distant; it is now at our doorstep.
The problem was predictable with the location of the park and its communities along vast, largely ungoverned forest corridors connecting northern Kwara, Niger and Kebbi states where armed criminals, including Violent Extremists, are persistently active. Past reports also indicated presence of strange actors, who, from our assessment, appeared to be a cell of a terrorist organization exploring new opportunities for entrenchment.
The Old Oyo National Park houses the relics of the Old Oyo Empire and also contains vulnerable communities who deserve protection. The continued infiltration of armed criminals into this space is unacceptable.
OGF calls on governments at all levels to urgently work with local communities to establish an Early Warning System that feeds into the security architecture, and to ensure that security agencies, including Amotekun, respond proactively and swiftly. As always, OGF will be ready to support genuine actions by the Government, including facilitation of community engagement and helping the mapping of the threats.
OGF is asking federal lawmakers, whose constituencies include Oke-Ogun, Orire, and Atiba areas of Oyo State to as matter of urgency raise this on the floors of the Senate and House of Representatives, demanding security agencies act NOW. Particularly, Forest Guards must be deployed to the park to protect its communities and retake it from different armed groups that have turned it to hideouts and operational hubs. State lawmakers must also press the State Government to strengthen the capabilities of Amotekun. It must be stressed that deep, seeming intractable violence some other places face today started as a simmering threat that was left unchecked. We must act differently to guarantee a different outcome.
OGF is engaging other community groups across Oyo State to convene an urgent stakeholders’ working retreat to press for decisive action against this worrying threat.
In the event of no genuine actions, we are afraid, we would be yield the ground to armed criminals to entrench themselves, particularly at a time of increased kinetic pressure on them in the North.
©Taiwo Hassan
