Herders/farmers’ clashes in Ondo are being resolved, says Adeleye

The Chairman, Amotekun Council of Commanders, Southwest Security Network and Special Adviser to Ondo State Governor on Security Matters, Akogun Adetunji Adeleye, speaks with OLUWASEUN AKINGBOYE in Akure on the emerging security challenges facing the region and sustainability of the Amotekun Corps.

How are you tackling emerging security challenges?
Security issues are broad and multifaceted. When we came on board about one and a half years ago, the prime of the challenges we have in this part of the country is herders/farmers’ clashes every day. We are not only bothered about loss of lives and property, but about the long-term effects. These farmers can no longer go to farm, resulting in shortages of food, such that you have money and there is nothing to buy with it.

You will recall that a module of garri sold for N200 at a point and later rose to N1, 000. Why? Farmers were scared of going to farm. You need to see the barrage of petitions that came in when Amotekun was set up within the first 90 days. We received hundreds of petitions. 

Our first challenge was to educate both the herders and the farmers on their limitations and the fact that the herders have the right to herd their cows and the farmers have the right to grow their crops. None of them should trample on the others’ business because they are all seeking to make profit.

After that, we now went into enforcement and that was where the problem really started. We were attacked initially and a lot of things went into it. 

What is the situation now in the state?
We were able to bring to book over 800 herders. We went on about 560 massive operations to rescue farmers before the advent of the Anti-grazing Law. Within the last one year of the law operating in Ondo State, which we are enforcing to the latter, we brought in the leadership of the Myetti Allah, educate them and in all instances, we gave the herders the option of going to court or pay fines.

So far, over 300 of them have paid the requisite fines, which they opted to pay and about 50 of them are going through different stages of prosecution, especially those that were found with ammunition. More than 75 per cent of herders/farmers’ clashes in Ondo are resolved. We are coping with the remaining 25. Another menace we found is kidnapping. It has degenerated to a stage that even within the town, the people can no longer board taxis for fear of being kidnapped within Akure Metropolis. 

We embarked on massive operations, especially “operation clean-up.” We are on phase seven of it now. We started phase one, which was within the city and phase two within the borders of the city. In phase three, we took the initiative into the hideouts of the criminals and smoked them out, while phase four, took us to all the 18 local governments. In phase five, we went into the forest because we found out that they left the cities and began to operate from there. The government came up with a policy that made it very easy for us to operate because there are lots of guidelines as to how herders can operate in the forest reserves; and the biggest of such is that they must be registered with the state government.

This enabled us to know that they are there and if there is any criminal activity around there, we hold them responsible. This is mainly why most of these herders don’t want to register. But substantially, we have been able to handle a lot of such. Again, we found out that after the #EndSARS crises, weapons got into so many wrong hands. Akure that has the history of requisite peace became haven for criminals. For a long time, we strategised and came up with a policy, having discovered that 80 per cent of these criminal activities were done in the evening, using motorbikes.

Government came up with a policy banning the use of commercial motorcycles popularly known as Okada, after 6pm. We raked in over 2,000 Okadas within the first three months. On that alone, criminal activities dropped by over 50 per cent. Of late, we came up with a policy, having observed also that now they don’t use Okada, but tinted vehicles without registration numbers. We reminded the citizenry of the need to register their vehicles and obtain police permit. Again, we embarked on massive public enlightenment programme for the people to be aware. We gave them a month before we began enforcement.

How did the people react to it?
Initially, the public did not see the benefit, but gradually criminal activities dropped tremendously.
Once we clamped down on violators by prosecuting some and fining others, most of them for tinted glass and non-registrations compliance rate increased. We don’t touch funds in Amotekun. All those fines were paid into government coffers.

By and large, we were able to bring a lot of sanity to the state. In the last five years, between October and December, it used to be feast of criminal activities in Ondo state. But, we did massive deployment to all control points to check the vice. We created 15 major control points in Akure and four in each of the local governments, such that the criminals cannot even get out of the state. We also know that their targets are banks, so we created pin-down points on major commercial areas and financial institutions.

We were able to ensure, in collaboration with other sister security agencies, that there was no single robbery operation in the state during the Yuletide season. Even the Yahoo Boys, we are on top of the situation with the appropriate synergy with the hoteliers in the state.

Do you think the parents of these scammers are culpable?
I want to say that the majority of the parents of these boys know what their children do – coming home with Lexus cars as a 200L student, buying houses and cars for their parents, and they know that they don’t have any legitimate job. They are accomplices as far as I am concerned. I am looking forward to a situation where the legal system will have a grip on such parents that encourage such. The decadence is a big failure from the family setting. There is no way your ward will be misbehaving to such extent that you will not know, otherwise you have failed as a parent. 

Again, majority of our youths are on the streets and idleness they say is the devil’s workshop. Their parents had laboured to train them, but they came out with no jobs. Government should consider massive job creation for these youths. It will also scale crime down. For all security agencies, the government has a lot of work to do. It needs to reinvigorate the system such that basic tools and equipment are provided for security personnel. 

What do you have to say about rivalry among security agencies?
We don’t have that kind of challenge in Ondo State. I work in synergy with the police, DSS, Army and NSCDC. I will say that out of about 1,000 major operations that Amotekun led, all of them were with the support of all these security agencies. Virtually all the kidnap cases, apart from using our equipment, we rely on the tracking device given to us by the DSS. And when we needed to penetrate, we involve the army, police and civil defence. 

In the last five weeks, we had joint operations in Ose and Owo local government areas. We have been combing the forests to arrest criminals. A similar operation took place about two weeks ago in Akoko and all our border areas. So, I can tell you that we have very robust relationship with them. Though that is not to say there is no issue, they are manageable issues.

The Federal Government has consistently said state police is not an option. What hope does Amotekun have?
The primary responsibility of a democratically elected governor is the protection of lives and property of the citizenry, and that has not been taken away from them. This is what the Southwest governors are exercising. Don’t forget, Amotekun was set up by law. So, it is a child of the law and we are operating within the ambit of that law that sets up the Corps. By this time, I don’t think we should bother about nomenclature. What is more relevant is the protection of lives and property of our people and by our people: that is the definition of Amotekun.

Bringing somebody from Taraba State to protect someone in Igbara-Oke, Ondo is not good because he will not know the terrain, but I know the terrain. So, there are times when we go on joint operation. They don’t have a choice than to rely on us to penetrate the nooks and crannies. This is one of the advantages too.

What is your view about the worrisome crime rate in the neighbouring states at the northern axis?
It is because there is no Amotekun in Kogi and Edo states. They are the major borders giving us problem. The criminals know that they can no longer operate within Ondo State, so they crossed the border to Kogi and Edo. This is why it is happening more in Ose, parts of Owo in Akoko Northwest Local Government. It is one of the major reasons we have it more in those places, but we are working on it.

When we started inter-border patrol of Osun, we rescued well over 300 victims and 250 vehicles within one month. What happened here were that the criminals left the town and started operating outside the state. But we felt it is still part of our responsibilities, so we called our colleagues in Osun to collaborate; and good enough, they made me the Chairman of Council of Amotekun Commanders. So, it was easy for us to synergise with them. We rescued a number of people in the riverine area of Ogun State. We were able to bring back the kidnapped victim, recovered the money and returned it to the owner.

How do you handle the discipline of personnel?
We exposed our personnel for three months to the public and there is no single case of extortion. No member of Amotekun had been arrested, seen or caught collecting incentives or money. This is because of the very strict disciplinary measures put in place and the implications. If caught, you are dismissed automatically and blacklisted. There is no member of Amotekun Corps that came on his own. All of them came in through their traditional rulers, local government and traditional heads, and must get a Level 15 officer to counter-sign before he comes to us for scrutiny. 

If for any reason any of them misbehaves, their guarantors would be in disrepute. In addition to that, we have a very strict disciplinary committee that does check and balances for all the staff. We dismissed two in the last year for misbehaving. What we teach them is that “Iwa Omoluabi” must be in them. There has to be a difference. Amotekun being a baby of circumstance came into being because of the failure of the security architecture around us.