A legal expert and Classics lecturer at the University of Ibadan, Dr. Oladoyin Odebowale, has raised concerns over the worsening security situation in Oyo State, warning that armed bandits have already established strong networks within local communities.
Odebowale, in a strongly worded statement, alleged that criminal elements have been operating in the state for a long time and are being aided by collaborators embedded in everyday society.
According to him, many of the suspected bandits disguise themselves as commercial motorcycle riders and security guards while awaiting instructions from their commanders.
“The bandits are in Oyo State. They have been around for sometime now. They live among us. They are the Okada riders and maiguards waiting for instructions from their unit commanders,” he wrote.
The lecturer further claimed that the criminals are being transported into communities through produce trucks and are constantly being integrated into different parts of the state without resistance.
“They bring them in through produce trucks and dumped on us everyday,” he stated.
Odebowale also alleged that the criminal networks enjoy support from certain collaborators and sympathisers, including what he described as “religious fanatics.”
According to him, the growing insecurity reflects systemic failures and lack of proper coordination among authorities and citizens alike.
“We are a careless people. No strategy, no coordination,” he lamented.
The legal expert criticised what he described as insincere and ineffective responses from government officials to repeated security threats and attacks across the South-West region.
“We are accustomed to desultory hypocrisy presented as solutions to these avoidable tragedies by state functionaries,” he said.
He warned that the security situation in the South-West could deteriorate further if urgent and coordinated measures are not taken to address the crisis.
“It is going to get worse in the South West,” Odebowale cautioned.
The university lecturer concluded with a grim warning that has continued to generate reactions online: “May the living not envy the dead in the days ahead.”
