Afenifere Raises Alarm Over Escalating Violence, Urges South-West States to Act
The Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has issued a stark warning over a surge in violent attacks across Nigeria, calling for urgent and robust security measures to prevent the crisis from engulfing Yorubaland.
In a statement released by its publicity secretary, Jare Ajayi, the group detailed a pattern of escalating brutality. It cited the recent invasion by heavily armed bandits of Woro and Nuku communities in Kwara State’s Kaiama Local Government Area, where nearly 200 people were reportedly killed and several others abducted. Afenifere noted that such attacks have spread to neighbouring states including Edo, Benue, Plateau, Kaduna, Katsina, Kogi, Niger, Ondo, Ekiti, and Oyo.
The organisation highlighted a dangerous evolution in the threat, pointing to the daylight abduction of a schoolgirl in Ibadan’s Challenge area as evidence that “terror acts are no longer confined to rustic settings where government presence is thin, if at all.” This shift, they argue, signals a direct threat to urban and densely populated areas.
Ajayi urged the governors of the South-West and adjacent states to implement decisive security strategies that would enable residents to “sleep with their two eyes closed.” He recalled that South-West governors, in a meeting in Ibadan on November 24, 2025, had agreed to establish a South-West Security Fund and set up monitoring centres, with Ogun State already inaugurating CCTV facilities. “The problem therefore is not lack of information, but the will to use the information in the interest of the people,” Ajayi stated.
He renewed calls for the immediate operationalisation of state police and the strengthening of local security arrangements, such as community vigilante groups, to complement federal efforts. Afenifere warned that without decisive action, sustained attacks in states bordering the South-West could precipitate a full-scale incursion into Yorubaland.
The statement underscores deepening public anxiety over Nigeria’s protracted security crisis, characterised by kidnappings for ransom, banditry, and communal violence. It places direct responsibility on regional leadership to move past agreement and into swift, coordinated implementation of protective frameworks to safeguard lives and property across the South-West geo-political zone.
