South-West, Edo, and Kogi governors are being sued by a group for kidnapping and banditry

Following a spate of killings, kidnappings, and other criminal activities in the Southwestern States, the Yoruba Koya Leadership and Training Foundation (YKLTF), a Pan-Yoruba group, has taken the governors of the region and its neighboring States, including Kogi and Edo, to court.

The suit states that the group’s president, Otunba Giwa Deji Osibogun, and Director of Media and Publicity, Amb. Demola Sanyaolu, decided to take the legal route in response to the governors’ alleged lackadaisical attitude toward the security of their citizens.

The suit, marked IB/CS/189/22, was filed in Oyo State before the Federal High Court Ibadan Judicial Division.

Otunba Ayodeji Osibogun, Chief (Mrs) Ronke Okusanya, Prof. Bisi Sowunmi, Senator Olatokunbo Ogunbanjo, and Mr. Olakunle Osuntokun are among the plaintiffs.

The defendants include the governors of the region, Edo and Kogi States, as well as the states’ attorneys general.

Among other things, the plaintiffs want the court to order the defendants to protect the people’s lives, dignities, and personal liberties from the oppression of herders, bandits, and kidnappers, who they say have continued to terrorize, maim, rape, kill, and kidnap the people of the states.

“Declaration that the people residing in all the 9 States have a right to demand that the defendants be compelled to protect their communities and their farmlands from the encroachment and invasion of local and foreign herders, bandits and kidnappers who have continued to prevent the people of the communities from realizing their full potentials of enabling environment, favourable to their social and economic development”.