TheCable

Fatai Owoseni, special adviser on security matters to Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo, says separatists who invaded the state secretariat were miscreants who probably acted under the influence of substances. 

On Saturday, security officers arrested 16 gunmen suspected to be members of a group identified as Oodua nation, for invading the state secretariat at Agodi, Ibadan.

The gunmen, who were arrayed in local charms and military camouflage, were subdued by security personnel after a gun duel.

The agitators were said to have removed the Nigerian national flag in the secretariat and hoisted an ‘Oodua nation flag’, before the intervention of security officials.

In an interview on Morning Brief, a Channels Television programme, on Monday, Owoseni, a former commissioner of police in Lagos, described the arrested agitators as “miscreants that seem to be on some kind of cheap drugs”.

He said some of the agitators’ hideouts have been uncovered, adding that the government will tame all those involved in the self-determination movement.

“The attackers are miscreants that seem to be on some kind of cheap drugs. Just like some movements where they are indoctrinated and think they can play some stunt and gain recognition,” he said.

“When you have such a movement of people who have been brainwashed, these are people who would have been promised heaven.

“From little interrogation, some of them said there is a proclamation that the Yoruba nation has gained independence. 

“We must own up to it that in the country, there is proliferation of different armed groups. Some are under the guise of private security guards. So, it is a cumulation of what has been happening in the country that has not been checked.

“So many other things have happened after this, areas which were discovered to be their cells where they are doing things have been burst. More recoveries and arrests have been made. More revelations have come out. 

“The state has the capacity to get around this and we are not relenting. We will continue to do what we do covertly to ensure these people are tamed and that they don’t use this place as a launchpad.”