The Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in Kwara State has condemned the abduction of the wife and two children of Lawal Salihu Ayanshola, Lawmaker representing Ipaiye/Malete/Olooru state constituency at the Kwara State House of Assembly in Shao, a community in Moro Local Government Area.
Describing the incident as horrific, terrific, and a confirmation of its position that the state is now under siege by criminal bandits and those who have commercialized violent abduction of people.
The PDP linked the escalating insecurity that has ravaged the state to the levity hands with which Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq was handling security matters and his penchant for ignoring creative advice, especially from security experts, stakeholders, and opposition members, who have been telling him to relocate home from Abuja and face core business of governance in the State which he swore on oath to defend.
The Party in a statement by its State Publicity Secretary, Olusola Adewara, urged Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq to immediately rise to the occasion and tackle cult-related killings, violent kidnappings, criminal gangsterism, and other attacks on people of the state by first reviewing logistics allocated to security agencies to ensure it is in tune with the present economic reality.
“As a Party and stakeholder in the project of Kwara, we are particularly worried about the recent violent abduction of the wife and two children of Lawal Salhiu Ayanshola, an APC lawmaker, representing Ipaiye/Malete/Olooru constituency at his residence in Shao town by unknown gunmen, who, according to the report available, came fully armed, shot sporadically into the air thereby creating panic in the town before escaping with those victims.
“This is just a few days after a similar incident in Ilorin, the state capital, where in broad daylight, around Kwara state High Court, a criminal gang, dressed in police uniform attacked a man who left a bank and successfully dispossessed him of his money. The seamless manner with which the criminals operated in broad daylight without any hindrance by security operatives still awed the people of Ilorin.
“If criminal elements now have the boldness to descend on the family of a serving legislator, who enjoys detachment of security orderlies and succeeded in their operations, how much more an ordinary citizen of the state with no police or security provisions? With all these daily reports of insecurity and unhindered operations of criminal elements across the state, it is safe to conclude by all standards that Kwara is presently under the siege of bandits and commercial kidnappers.
“We call on Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, who is the Chief Security Officer of the state to make himself more available in Kwara, and unveil how he has been managing 100s of millions of security votes so he can immediately take steps in reviewing the entire security architecture, collaborate with the local vigilante groups across the state to device local strategies peculiar to the state and make necessary recommendations to the federal authority with a few to urgently tame the festering insecurity in the state.
“From informal reports gathered, the government needs to do more to encourage security agencies in the state. It was learnt that the same logistics being provided to security agencies over the last three years have remained unchanged, even with the present pump price of petrol which may be making it difficult for the security patrol to run smoothly across the state.
“This is quite unfortunate given the level of cash inflow to the state and even the undisclosed security votes being deployed every month from Abuja to tackle insecurity. The vehicles procured to enhance local security should immediately be retrieved from the TIC chairmen who have converted them to their utility vehicles and handed over to security officials to aid their operations.
“It is indeed regrettable that over the past years, our advice to the State Government to devise a creative solution to the escalating insecurity in the State has gone unheeded. Unfortunately, it is in this environment of terror and public anxiety that Kwarans now live with many businesses going down, the farmers can no longer go to their farmlands, those who stay in the capital city of Ilorin can no longer sleep with their two eyes closed all on account of the atmosphere of fear and anxiety that has enveloped the entire state.”
