Oyo sets up taskforce on kidnapping, farmers-herders clashes

The Oyo State Government has set up a task force to look into the rising cases of kidnapping and clashes between herdsmen and farmers at Oke-Ogun area and other parts of the state.

The government said it was prepared to provide adequate measures to address the insecurity situation in the Oke-Ogun.

The Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Toye Arulogun, made this known on Wednesday during a live radio programme in Ibadan.

Mr Arulogun said the state governor, Abiola Ajimobi, constituted the task force after the various meetings held with famers, herdsmen, traditional rulers, security agencies and others.

He said the taskforce had the mandate to look into the spate of kidnappings, maimings and the crises between the herdsmen and farmers in the Oke-Ogun Area.

According to him, the taskforce had already started work, and had visited the zone to ascertain the situation of things in the area.

Mr Arulogun said that the government had mandated security agencies in the state to beef up security around the state and improve on their intelligence gathering, stating that the efforts had been yielding positive results with the arrest of some suspected kidnappers by the security agencies.

He said that the increase in surveillance by the security agencies had also doused tensions in the area, assuring that the state government would continue to provide adequate measures to ensure that lives and properties were secured.

“The security situation in the state is not as bad as being portrayed by some mischievous individuals,” he said.

“The breach was more from external than internal persons. Our administration is known for peace, safety and security. This is evident in the 4-Star rating as a well qualified state to help foreign and domestic investors given by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC).

“Also, the state was adjudged as the 4th best investment friendly state and one of the only five states that attracted investment to the country in the last quarter of 2017 by the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

“It is based on the peaceful cum secured environment that new businesses are springing up with a renaissance of the night economy in the state and government is getting a lot of investment requests. We cannot allow anything to disrupt the peace in the state and that is the reason the Governor setup a taskforce to address the issue of Oke Ogun in addition to the existing security apparatus.”