Governor ‘Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, has warned land grabbers and illegal miners in the state against their unwholesome activities, describing their operations as dangerous.
Makinde gave the warning during an interactive meeting he held with traditional rulers, heads of security agencies and local government chairmen.
The meeting was held at the House of Chiefs, State Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan. The governor said that it was unlawful for any individual or group to forcefully take over landed property or engage in illegal mining operations.
He vowed that his government would nip the situation in the bud by dealing decisively with those found culpable in such acts.
“We have identified issues of land grabbing and illegal mining as major challenges; I have also interacted with the people, including the traditional institution.
“From our analysis, the land grabbers are working mostly with some traditional rulers,” he said.
Makinde warned that any traditional ruler or chief “aiding the operations of the land grabbers and illegal miners will be dealt with”.
“While we try to protect the interest of everybody, I want to seriously warn that we are not going to allow the situation in other places to occur here in Oyo State.“This is because we have the chance and opportunity to deal decisively with those troublemakers before it becomes a trend here.
“We have to address some of these issues and nip them in the bud right now and I want to solicit for the support of our traditional institution on this,” he stated.
“Oyo State is blessed with solid minerals in our localities, especially Oke-Ogun, Ogbomoso and Ibarapa axis.“We have the Chinese, Malians and different people from other places all over these areas especially in the Iwajowa axis, all the way to Saki East.”
The governor called for more collaboration among security agencies, government and the traditional institution in the state, to improve the security situation. He noted that the collaboration among the stakeholders so far had brought peace to the state, thereby making it attractive to investors and others.
Makinde promised that his administration would continue to provide necessary support and encouragement to the security agencies so that they could keep the state safe during the Yuletide and beyond.
Earlier, Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, commended the Makinde-led administration for handling the security of the state quite well.
Oba Adeyemi said all the traditional rulers in the state had been synergising with the Police and other security personnel and the collaboration had been fruitful.
NAN reports that the Nigerian Army, Police, Department of State Security, (DSS), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and Amotekun had their representatives at the meeting.
(NAN)
