Call him an alarmist, a comrade, activist or human rights defender or the generalissimo of Yoruba land, Aare Gani Adams has complete freedom of speech and freedom to air his voice or opinion on any issue especially, one bothering on security of Yoruba. He is no doubt, a diehard’ when it comes to defending the rights of and insurgents in Yoruba land, the reason he was bestowed with prestigious title Aare Ona Kakanfo.
However, with his antecedents, and even his present position as Aare, I do not believe whether he is sure of what he is saying on ISIS terrorists presence in Oyo State. His intelligence gathering mechanism so far so good, can only be linked to Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), which now has little or no more credibility in Yoruba land.
Aare Gani Adams, in a BBC Yoruba interview few days ago, raised an alarm of presence of 1,000 world dreaded ISIS terrorists organization members on power bikes each carrying loads, in northern part of Oyo State specifically, Okeogun and Ibarapa. He, claimed that the terrorists are already inside Lusada forest and Okeogun namely; Saki, enroute Igboora, ibarapa to Sokoto. In support of his claim, he recalled an earlier allegation against Professor Ishaq Akintola and his MURIC Islamic organization that the terrorists group is funding them. The professor has come on air to denounce the allegations.
In the same vein, it was also gathered that our Rtd Brig. Gen. Kunle Togun – The Oyo State Amotekun Chairman also corroborated Aare Gani Adams’ claim on the presence of ISIS terrorists in the region.
This coming from the two personalities calls for a concern and should be critically looked into by the public and security agencies of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In the said interview, Aare Adams also claimed to have means of tackling the suspected terrorists if he’s permitted to use his machinery. On this note, I laughed because our Aare Onakakanfo doesn’t know that the mode of operations of international terrorist group ISIS can be devastating. Only the Syrians, Lebanese and Iraqis can testify. We can only pray that may we not witness their operations in Yoruba land. It is beyond using ‘white handkerchiefs and throwing eggs’ that failed OPC in Ilorin few years ago.
Before I analyse the resilience nature of Okeogun people, let me quickly delve into the corroborative stand of Gen. Togun. Our respected Rtd Brig. Gen. Kunle Togun is a veteran, combatant army officer, former deputy national security officer and former commandant of ECOMOG in Liberia. He is the first to rise to the rank of a general in the Nigerian Army from Okeogun region. Since his retirement over 20years ago, he has dedicated his life to serving humanity through Church activities as a Pastor/General Overseer, a community leader and a farmer. Saki community and Okeogun area in general have benefited from his wealth of experience through his pioneering and mentoring a joint uniform vigilante security in the 10 local government areas in Okeogun free of charge.
However, Baba Togun has fondly called in Saki has become and turned synonymous with controversy in recent years. He once confronted an Islamic preacher openly in a public lecture and get him arrested by police for mentioning the name of Jesus Christ and quoting from Holy bible in his preaching. The event shake the peace of the town and elders had to come in to prevent the religious chaos it might have caused. Secondly, not many will know that Baba Togun is a “constituted authority’ in the town when it comes to certain issues bothering on tradition or chieftaincy in the town. For instance, Baba Togun personally screened and even conducted a written examination for one of the present High Chiefs in Saki during the contest for the post. Baba Togun is that garrulous. When I heard he corroborated what Aare Gani Adams said, it left me with some reservations and the claim by the duo, leaves much to be desired.
Okeogun has a region is agrarian and being at border area with the Republic of Benin, is also a gateway to Nigeria. The Okeogun people are highly principled, industrious and very resilience when it comes to cheating. They so much abhors cheating that the people are also ready to lay down their lives to defend righteousness. The medical doctor that saved Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in prison is a proud son of Okeogun.
ISIS as the world knows are dangerous terrorists and wherever they carry out their operations can never be the same again given the level of destruction it would comes with. We do not pray for that in any part of Nigeria talkless of Okeogun. If Aare Gani Adams had mentioned presence of ISIS terrorists in his Ikare Akoko homeland, I would not burg but only sympathize with the community. Mentioning Okeogun area to me is selfish, political and mischievous. Relating same to Fulani herdsmen makes it too tribalistic and religious. When security agents now started investigating the allegations many innocent Muslims wearing beards would be harassed and embarrassed all in the name of spurious allegation. We in Okeogun have our own security networks and we knows our forests inside out. If Aare Gani Adams is looking for security contract from government, he should not come to or mention Okeogun. No bank robbery incidents has ever succeeded in Okeogun, we also have mechanism for dealing with kidnappers! We knows the local Fulanis and they are part of our security networks because we are brothers.
Therefore, in the last 5 or 6 days that Aare Gani Adams had claimed that there’s presence of terrorists in our forests, the Okeogun people along with security operatives would have fished them out if it was true. While we would all remains at alert and monitoring all unusual movements in our area, I implored our security forces to take control to comb out any unscrupulous elements in the region.
Esv Ismail Adewoyin is a Public Analyst and the Convener, Okeogun Project Forum writes from Ibadan.
