Osun raises alarm over influx of Northerners

From Fisayo Akinduro, Osogbo
|
Osun State Government on Wednesday raised the alarm over the influx of Zamfara indigenes into the State.

The Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Gboyega Oyetola, Prince  Adeyanju  Abdullah Binuyo, who disclosed this in an interview, said the government was aware of the influx but urged the residents not to panic as  adequate security measures have been put in place to arrest the situation.

Binuyo further disclosed that all northern youths who had escaped into the state by hiding in  trucks carrying essential goods had been tracked down by the government and will immediately be sent back to their home states.

He disclosed too  that the government had mandated the Amotekun Corps to effectively man all the entry points and ensure that all trucks bringing essential goods into the state are properly checked and monitored till they offload their goods and immediately escorted out of the State.

“Government is aware of a huge influx of non- Osun residents into the state, especially from Zamfara. They were coming majorly through the Ondo axis, accompanying  trucks that are carrying food materials purportedly to be sold around the South West generally.

“The intelligence that we’ve gathered in the last few days is such that they usually have two or a maximum of three people attached to a truck to assist in discharging the goods. But now we have sometimes ten of them hidden among the goods.

“Sometimes the trucks would stop and drop some of them off along Ife express road where they are received by their fellow northerners already resident in the State.

“The newly inaugurated Amotekun with the support of the police and army have been mandated to identify and man all the entry points, carry out proper checks on the trucks coming in the name of carrying food or relief materials and make sure that anyone found hiding in these trucks are immediately returned to their states,” Prince Binuyo stated.

The Deputy Chief of Staff maintained that all travels to and from the State remained banned while the land boundaries would “be on lockdown  round the clock”, adding that only “food, medical, beverages, petroleum, agriculture and construction supply trucks are exempted but they cannot have more than three persons per truck”.

He assured that adequate security machineries had been put in place to ensure that trucks coming in are offloaded under close watch and immediately escorted out of the state.