The Ogun state commander of the Vigilante
Group of Nigeria, Commander Olanrewaju Nureni Adedoyin have made it known to
the general public that it’s organization is non-partisan, and they have
nothing to do with any politicians, rather than providing securities for them,
only if they call on them for protection during political campaigns or rallies.
Adedoyin said this with some reporters at the command headquarters in Abeokuta
recently. Excerpt:
Present
state of security in Ogun state
Except for the current political activities
and situation we are in now, the state have witnessed peace and calmness within
the last twelve months. Political activities are ongoing, and I think that may
be postrate to the security and safety as well as the peace we have in the
state for now, but I assure the people that we are ready to provide security.
Achievements
in the last twelve months
We have recorded so many achievements in this
year. Firstly around Odogbolu LG, Imodi-Mosan to be precise, a criminal killed
and butchered one man, parked the body parts in a sack and hid it in the bush,
the man was declared missing and family contacted our command and we swung into
action. In the cause of the investigation we were able to apprehend the culprits
and they confessed to the killing of the man. We recovered the corpse and
handed both the corpse and the culprits to the Nigeria Police. Also in
Abeokuta, we have many people that do snatch Okada, and kudos to the Adigbe
DPO, who gave our personnel full support and we were able to work hands in a
glove, arrested them all. Not only that, we have records of the convicts who
ran away from prison and we get them arrested, and took them back to the
prison. Not limited to that, around Yewa also, it was reported that there was a
communal clash, let me use this medium to give kudos to the new Ayetoro Area
Commander, who is doing great things. He invited the concerns and we the
Vigilantes to settle the clash.
We have a Memorandum of Understanding signed
and sealed with Ahmadu Bello University in order to bridge the gap between the
literate and the illiterate people we have in our organizations. We are trying
to equip the uneducated among us. We also have partnership with Southwestern
University, and we have some of our personnel that are undergoing degree
courses and have been doing fine.
We have a very good synergy with the Nigeria
Security and Civil Defense Corp, NSCDC; NDLEA, Police, FRSC and other existing
security agencies, and also we have partner with all the media houses in Ogun
state in order to educate and sensitize members of the public on security
issues. We have also gone on radio and television station to sensitize
politicians by letting them know that hate speech is not good for our society
and also during campaigns, particularly some hoodlums may want to engage in
hate speech and propaganda, and even at all if propaganda is part of campaign,
I think it should have limits so that it will not become hate speech that may
lead to character assassination.
We have also sensitize Okada riders so that
and motor owners to contribute to the development of our state to mention but a
few, even though we have most of them.
Challenges
There are lots of challenges and if we say
there are no challenges, definitely we are deceiving ourselves. You know human
beings are the most difficult set of creatures that one can manage. It is not
difficult to talk to people and convince them on a particular phenomenon; it is
a very difficult task because what you are thinking, the direction you are
looking at that phenomenon may be different from the one who you are passing
the message to. It is also not easy, you know our organization is not been
funded by government for now and not been funded by any source, it is a
voluntary donation among ourselves. I can’t lie to you, we are really suffering
because most of us have abandoned our business to make sure that we stand firm
and provide security for our state. We are trying our best to make sure that we
provide security for our people. These are not the only challenges, we have
challenges in the area of mobility and for now, we are only using our private
vehicles to go up and down because we don’t have vehicles from the government,
nor private companies nor any other source. Funding, mobility and enough
security gadgets are what we are lacking and we plead to the kindhearted people
to come to our aid.
We are also calling on the federal, state and
local governments to come to our aid now. Now is the time, you know we have a
bill that was recently passed by the two upper chambers in Abuja, and we are
waiting for the President to assent it. And if it been assented to, definitely,
we will perform more than what we are doing now. If only at this level we can
operate like this and contribute our quota to communities, what stop us from
moving more if our bill is been assented-to by the President. I am using this
medium also to call on the federal government to look on our side and assent
our bill.
Not only that, we are also calling on state government, we know that
our governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun is a man of his word, someone we can rely
on, he has done it in the past, even though some people try to sabotage the
effort, we still want him to do it again because he knows that Vigilante Group
of Nigeria have worked for him and have worked with him by providing security.
Governor Amosun is a man that has never used Vigilante for any hiding agenda to
carry a heinous act. He is a man of peace and loves peace. We call on him to
rise up and do more for us at VGN.
Preparations
for the coming festive season
We have our internal arrangements for the
coming festive season. We have deployed our men to go out on footpaths, and
also join patrol with the Nigeria Police, FIB, DSS, NSCDC, NDLEA, FRSC, TRACE
and other security agencies across the state in order to sanitize our
environments. You know if there is sanity the whole state, in all the
communities, there will be peace. You can’t see a reasonable human being
thinking of how to perpetrate crime, except such a person is on drugs. If we
notice any suspicious movement around us, we have assigned some of our
personnel to move around in the community. We have appointed some of our
personnel to all ATM channels within the state to monitor activities. I want to
assure the citizens of Ogun state that they can sleep and close there two eyes
before, during and after Christmas.
Preparations
for the ongoing campaigns
First of all, I want to call the attention of
the general public to the fact that we at the VGN are non-partisan. We don’t
support any political party but we provide security for them because the lives
of all the candidates are precious to us and the society. Not only the
candidates, even the lives of people who attend (would) rallies too are more
paramount to us, we don’t pray to lose anybody. This is why we provide security
at every rally. At times, they write to us, seeking for our assistance in terms
of security, and even at all they don’t write to us, and we heard intelligence
that there may be violence during rally, then we quickly write to the police,
in order to alert and inform them.
ADVISE TO
THE GENERAL PUBLIC
Always be a law abiding citizen of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria, if you obey the law, there will be peace, and nobody
will think of perpetrating any evil act. And to the politicians, I will urge
them to make their campaign as brief as they can, so that there won’t be any
trouble. Also they should avoid the use of political thuggery because there is
no gain in it.
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