L-r: High Chief Dr Omoyeni, the Olisa of Ikere; High Chief J.O Daramola, the Olute Alau of Ise Kingdom; Elder Tunji Falana, Chairman JSC; Brig. Gen Ebenezer Ogundana, SA Security Matters; Chief Folu Oni; NSDC D.O for Ise-Orun LG, Mr Adeyanju; Brig. Gen. Olu Adewa, Ekiti Amotekun Commander; and High Chief Ogundare, the Atiba of Ise Kingdom
By John Odunayo
THE Emure/Ise-Orun/Ikere Joint Security Committee has appealed to Ekiti State Government to provide support to the security agencies in the the three council areas to strengthen fight against crime and insecurity in the area.
JSC Chairman, Elder Tunji Falana, said support was also necessary to overcome the menace of desperate Indian Hemp growers in the area and the itinerant herdsmen destroying farmers’ crops in the area.
Falana spoke in Ado Ekiti during a Save our Soul visit to the Special Adviser to Ekiti State Governor on Security Matters, Brig. Gen. Ebenezer Ogundana (retd).
The JSC Chairman said, “Credible intelligence shows that herders now dot the massive rain forests from Ikere to Ise through to Emure forest reserves feeding their cattles with our farmers’ food crops. We need more logistic support and motivation from Ekiti State Government.
He outlined the support needed to include police van for Emure Division, saying, “The available rickety patrol pick-up van moves at snail’s pace. also, with Ise Ekiti having 110 farmsteads scattered through the 432sq km land mass, definitely Ise/Orun Local Government needs an additional police patrol van to cover the expansive forests and farmsteads.
“In order to secure the borders of Emure and Ondo State and stop the bandits and kidnappers from infiltrating into Eporo and Emure, JSC is requesting for a police post and an Army Checkpoint at the boundaries of Emure Local Government with Ondo State.
“The two police stations burnt down during EndSARS protest have remained in like that since then.
“We are also making a passionate plea to the governor, Mr Biodun Oyebanji, regarding the menace of the desperate Indian hemp growers in Ise forests Reserves.
“The cannabis sativa growers have taken over the forests. They now have the effrontery to send death threats to selected families at Ise.Cannabis sativa has become a multi billion naira business, a seemingly unresolvable jigsaw puzzle. Something has to be done urgently to redress this”.
Falana, who lauded donors to the cause of JSC Endowment Fund, however, appealed, “We need government’s logistics support to sustain the monthly bush combing by the combined forces of all the security outfits whose number hovers around 200 participants from all the security outfits in the three local governments involved”.
Responding, the SA Security Matters, Gen. Ogundana, who said said that the governor was aware of the security challenges in the zone, praised the JSC model of community policing which he described as unique.
Ogundana, who promised to take the requests of the JSC to the governor, however, appealed to other local governments in the state to emulate the Emure/Ise-Orun/Ikere Joint Security Committee.
