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Amotekun arrests, evicts 42 Fulani men whose arrival in Ondo community heightened anxiety

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No fewer than 42 Fulani men who visited Okitipupa council area of Ondo State within the week, have been evicted by the state security outfit, Amotekun.

The visitors were reportedly brought into the town in a truck and dumped in front of the Okitipupa Army Barracks at about 10:00p.m last Thursday.

Amotekun has explained why the Fulani men have been evicted from the state, saying that their presence in the community heightened anxiety as residents raised the alarm.

Addressing newsmen in Akure at the weekend, the state Commander of Amotekun, Chief Adetunji Adeleye, said the 42 men were arrested following their inability to explain their mission in the state.

According to him the suspected invaders who hailed from Kano and Jigawa states, claimed that they were invited to the state by an agent who will engage them as security guards to monitor and guide pipelines.

“In the last three days, there have been issues relating to the invasion of the state by alleged Fulani men,” said Adeleye

“Our intelligence showed us the influx of some people especially to Okitipupa Local Government Area of the state.

“So, we monitored and we found out that they converged in front of the army barracks in Okitipupa.

“They were there for a couple of hours and at that point, we tried to find out what their mission is, but because they couldn’t give satisfactory explanations we moved them to our local office first in Okitipupa to try to debrief them and from the debriefing at Okitipupa, we had to move them to the state headquarters for proper debriefing.

“When they arrived, we profile them and we found out that they are primarily from two major states, Kano and Jigawa States.

“The mission that they claimed they came for is not too clear and upon profiling, we found out that majority of them don’t even know how they got to where they got to.

“All they were told was that they were going for training. Training for who, by who, or whatsoever, they do not know.

READ ALSO: Amotekun seizes 100 cows for grazing on highway in Ondo

“The sponsors happened to also claimed that they belong to an NGO, that they contracted out the training to a consultant who was supposed to train their men. They said they were going to train them as security guards.

“But as part of our discreet investigation, we found out that the so call consultant had been arrested in Delta State and I confirmed from the Delta State Police Command as at today that he’s still in their custody. So, we intend to release them, we will release all these ones and ensure that they are taken back to their states.”

Adeleye went on to explain that Amotekun decided to release the strangers because “right now we look at them as security risk to the state, and at this point we invited the sponsors, the head of the NGO and Chairman of the board have also offered explanation.

“But we feel that we should let the people of Ondo State know that there is no crisis in Okitipupa Local Government.

“The way it was portrayed as if some hoodlums or militants had taken over is not true.

“We want to reassure the good people of Ondo State that we are firmly on ground in conjunction with other security agencies that there is no problem. People should go about their businesses normally.

“We are not leaving anything untouched and we have ensured that our intelligence unit had covered the entire state and we’ll alert the public on any wrong move.

“We intend to provide escort to lead them out of Ondo State back to wherever they came from,” he added.

Meanwhile, the state government has urged the people of the state not to take laws into their hands and should not hesitate to report any strange movement in their community.

“The security situation we found ourself in the last 72 hours was a very precarious one. If not that it was discretely and professionally handled and well managed by officials of government particularly Amotekun Commander and SSA on security, the situation would have degenerated to the extent of lynching and jungle justice,” the state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Donald Ojogo said.

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