A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Osun State, Mr Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, has urged the Service Chiefs to go hard on insurgents and others perpetrating violent crimes in the country in a bid to restore public confidence in their capacity.
Oyintiloye stated this in Osogbo on Sunday in a statement he signed and made available to journalists.
He said the capacity of the security agents to crush the bandits and others involved in crime was not in doubt.
He, however, declared that more needed to be done to stop the killings in some parts of the north and other parts of the country.
He expressed concern over the rise in the spate of killings by suspected bandits in Kwara, Borno, Zamfara, and Niger States, and said that heads of security agencies must go hard on those involved in the killings and their sponsors.
Commenting further, the former lawmaker said many Nigerians are living in fear due to the challenge of insecurity ravaging the country, despite the efforts of the security agencies to bring the situation under control.
Oyintiloye also implored heads of various security agencies to prevent infiltration of their ranks by hoodlums and utilise the human and material resources they have to crush the bandits and restore public confidence.
“There is no doubt that the Service Chiefs are doing their best to stop the killings by the bandits, but they need to be more ruthless with them until they put an end to insurgency in our land.
“I will also urge them to look inward and fish out those who might be working against their relentless efforts to crush the activities of the terrorists in the country completely. This is very important to restore public confidence in the security agencies.
“People are tired, and many of them are living in fear of the unknown due to the activities of those perpetrating violent crimes in the country,” he said.
He also highlighted the need for the Service Chiefs to involve local security networks in intelligence gathering to tackle the menace, adding that residents of different communities must be engaged in intelligence gathering.
Oyintiloye further said that the security agencies should also target the financiers of terrorist groups in the country to weaken the groups.
Commending President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly for providing the needed support and budgetary allocation for the security agencies to reduce violent crimes in the country, Oyintiloye predicted that with the cooperation of all stakeholders and a positive mindset on the part of Nigerians, the country would defeat the menace of insecurity in no distant time.
Nigeria continues to grapple with persistent security challenges despite ongoing military operations and increased government funding for defence.
In the past decade, insurgency in the North-East, banditry in the North-West, and communal violence in parts of the Middle Belt have claimed thousands of lives and displaced many. y
In recent months, renewed concerns have emerged over the rising cases of abductions and killings by suspected bandits in several northern states.
This has prompted calls from political leaders, civil society groups, and traditional rulers for a more aggressive and coordinated response from the nation’s security architecture.
