Insecurity: Bandits Gradually Taking over Ekiti, PDP Warns Fayemi

Insecurity: Bandits Gradually Taking over Ekiti, PDP Warns Fayemi

By Victor Ogunje

Due to the rising cases of insecurity in Ekiti State, further fuelled by the kidnap of a popular petrol dealer in state, Alhaji Suleiman Akinbami, last Sunday by gunmen, the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has raised the alarm over the alleged gradual takeover of the state by bandits.

The party accused the state Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, of surrendering the state for bandits to take over.

The PDP, which described the kidnapping of Akinbami at his petrol station in Ado Ekiti as a major danger signal, said it was getting to a level where residents of the state would not even be safe in their bedrooms.

According to a statement issued by the state Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Raphael Adeyanju, yesterday, “It is sad and shameful that while Akinbami was being kidnapped right at his business premises yesterday, Fayemi, who he laboured and funded to power as the state governor, was nowhere to be found in the state.”

The party said: “That Akinbami could be kidnapped right in the heart of Ado Ekiti, the state capital, is a clear indication that security of lives and property of the Ekiti people is no longer guaranteed even in their bedrooms.

“It should be recalled that even on December 25, 2020, on Christmas day, the bandits operated unhindered in Isan Ekiti, Fayemi’s hometown, where one Ajayi Happy Okunola was abducted.

“It is also more worrisome that all these are happening under a governor who claimed to hold a doctorate in War Studies, and we begin to wonder what manner of PhD holder in War Studies will be a governor of a state where people are kidnapped often.

“It is either the governor is grossly incompetent or he is simply looking the other way while the Ekiti people are being kidnapped by bandits so that those he believed can make him either president or vice president in 2023 can adjudge him as being politically correct.”

The opposition party pointed out that rather than jumping from one place to the another struggling to be the presidential or vice presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2023, Fayemi should face governance in Ekiti State and make the state safe for residents and visitors.

The PDP lamented that Ekiti that the police had adjudged as the most peaceful state during the tenure of Governor Ayodele Fayose has now become a state where almost all its roads have been taken over by bandits, who have turned the state to a major catchment area for their kidnapping business.

It said a serious government would have taken decisive steps when a Chinese engineer was abducted along Ado-Iyin Road, “because that was a pointer to the fact that the bandits were getting to the state capital.

“Now, the bandits have been further emboldened by Fayemi’s tacit approval of their criminal activities with his non-chalant attitude, and they have moved their kidnapping activities into the heart of Ado Ekiti, the state capital. This to us is a danger signal and a clear sign that no one is safe in the state.

“We therefore call on well-meaning Ekiti people to beg Fayemi to perform the major function of his office by protecting the lives and property of the people before bandits would begin to abduct the people of the state in their houses.”

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