Report life-threatening activities, Oyo tells residents

• Says it demolished agitators’ building after obtaining court order
• DHQ describes agitation for Yoruba nation laughable, insecurity self-inflicted

Oyo State Government, yesterday, charged residents of the state to report any illegal, life-threatening and nefarious activities going on in their environment, saying the government is out to maintain security.

The state’s Commissioner for Lands, Housing, Survey and Urban Development, William Akin-Funmilayo, stated this while speaking with journalists at the site of the demolished building allegedly belonging to Yoruba Nation agitators.

It would be recalled that the Oyo State had on Tuesday, demolished a building located at Toye Oyesola Street, Sagari, Boluwaji area of Ibadan, which it claimed, belonged to Yoruba nation agitators that invaded the Oyo State Government Secretariat on Saturday.

The commissioner, who conducted journalists around the building, said that the government pulled it down after obtaining a court order.

He said: “The demolition was carried out two days ago. We obtained a court order on April 16, 2024, to demolish the building, having got information that the Yoruba nation agitators used the place. This building belongs to them. It houses dangerous weapons.”

MEANWHILE, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has said that the recent agitation for the Yoruba Nation is laughable.

It also raised the alarm that terrorists and their sympathisers were planning to blackmail the military following its onslaught on the insurgents.

Director of Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. Edward Buba, who spoke during a media briefing, yesterday, in Abuja, said the agitation had further showed how the insecurity ravaging many parts of the country is self-inflicted.

He said: “The agitation of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in the South-East has proven to be for self-aggrandisement. Then, the call for a Yoruba Nation is laughable. All these buttresses how our security situation is self-inflicted in the country.”

He said that bearing firearms against a constituted government is a serious offence, warning that anyone who does that would be severely dealt with.

Buba, who said that the military had been working decisively to kill the terrorists, dismantle their networks and create conditions whereby they cannot carry out acts of terror or harm citizens, however, urged the media to be wary of the antics of terrorist groups and their sympathisers, as the military operations have prevented these ‘evil elements’ from accomplishing their strategic objectives.

He said the troops had neutralised 192 terrorists and arrested 341 persons while rescuing 62 kidnapped hostages in the last week.