Afenifere to Osinbajo: Your opportunistic utterances shameful, disgrace to the Yoruba 

The apex Yoruba Sociopolitical group, Afenifere on Tuesday berated Vice President Yemi Osinbajo for claiming that some of the kidnapping stories in the country are not true but fueled by politics.

The group which stated this in a communique issued at the end of its monthly meeting held the home of its leader, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, said the Vice President had become a disgrace to the Yoruba.

The group in the communique read by its National Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin, lamented that Osinbajo has become “opportunistic and provocative utterances,” wondering why he would claim that stories of kidnap were fuelled by politics while the South West region is under siege and its people “overwhelmed by reports of traumatisation of our people by Fulani herdsmen/kidnappers/militia all across the Six states in the zone as well as Kwara and Kogi States.

The communique noted that, ”all the reports provided clear indications of failure of state as the security forces have largely incapable or unwilling to safeguard the lives of our people against these Criminals.

“We are not aware of any of them that has been arrested or is under trial at the moment just as all the Federal Government has done so far is to make excuses for the Boko Haram and Miyetti Allah groups that have been accused of so many crimes against the people of Nigeria.”

Osinbajo had while speaking to Nigerians who had expressed concerns about the growing cases of kidnapping in the country at a town hall meeting in New York on Sunday evening, said some of the kidnap reports were untrue and political motivated, noting that the social media “tends to be hysterical about practically everything,”

He had said, “With respect to general kidnapping which we have seen in parts of the country, again, this is not entirely new. In fact, some of the kidnapping stories you read or listen to are simply not true anywhere, some are fuelled by politics.

“There are cases of kidnapping, no question at all about that, but some of the more dramatic stories that you hear are simply not true.

“Every report of kidnapping we receive, we try to verify, and at the end of the day you find out that people just tell all sorts of stories.”