Shola Akinyele
He retired in January 2019 as a commissioner of Police. He had served in that rank in different capacity as head of command in Lagos and Benue States, as well as in charge of general investigations at the popular Force Criminal Investigation Department, FCID, Alagbon, Lagos; in charge of administration and finance, at the Force headquarters in Abuja, aside from working in places like Edo State.
Fatai Owoseni, valiant security personnel and operations person has worked in critical departments of the Police Force, within and outside where he made the country proud. Outside Nigeria, he worked with the United Nations Peace Keeping Mission in Darfur, Sudan, where he was recognised as police chief and best practice officer. That was after he had served as principal staff officer to MD Abubakar, a former Inspector General of Police.
In this interview with Dejo Oyawale, Chief Operating Officer, and Wola Adeyemo, Executive Editor, Publications, Owoseni analysed the crisis of insecurity in Nigeria and why it has been a tough nut for the country to crack. He said the Oyo State integrated security is being copied by other states because it has been effective.
When you were appointed in 2019, you said that you had decided to tilt towards home. Why did you say so, and what was the objective?
I said that because throughout my years of service, 35 years in service, I did not work in Oyo State, but I had the opportunity of having the knowledge of what crime situation was in all parts of this country. As a younger of officer between 1986 and 1997/98, I was in the old Force Headquarters at Moloney, Kam Salem building, and I was in the Department of Operations.
The Department of Operations is the department that collates security reports from all the police commands, including doing an analysis of intelligence reports sent by the NSO (National Security Organisation), later the DSS (Directorate of State Security). And as a young officer I was involved in putting all these situation reports together, from Moloney I was in Force CID, Alagbon Close, which also had that responsibility of having an …investigation and intelligence of what is happening in the whole country. And of course, moving up in my career, I became a principal staff officer, PSO, to an Inspector General of Police, IGP M D Abubakar.
Why we are not having solution (to insecurity) is because we are not truthful in this country. We are wicked in this country. Starting from the security up to the political leaders
One of the responsibilities of the PSO is to have an idea of what is happening in the intelligence across the country. The commissioners of Police sometimes want to get to the IGP through you. I later became the Commissioner of Police in the operations department at the Louis Edet House in the Force Headquarters in Abuja. So, all the exposures had given me an idea of what the crime situations in all states were.
That is why I am being emphatic to say that we cannot say that Oyo State had serious security crisis. It has been relatively peaceful. What was prominent in Oyo State, and which is what we used to have in the state is the low trends of crisis, maybe shop breaking, burglary … some opportunistic crimes. Oyo State has never been at the forefront of crisis, apart from those political issues.
What would you say are the specific mandate that taking up the job of Special Adviser on Security in the state confer on you?
Accepting to become the Special Adviser on Security, just like we used to say, for security people the job is already cut out for them. You know what you are going into. And as an adviser, different from when I was in service, the challenge will now be how are the units working together; the various security agencies, how are they working together? And of course, looking at what is happening in Nigeria now, how are they able to interface with the people, because the people are the key elements when we want to solve security problem.
Majorly that was what first came to my head, that having not worked here before, but having the knowledge of what challenges they could have in terms of synergy, where do you start from because you have not worked here before. Is it the same thing that I have experienced in Lagos or Benue State? Of course, I have to know how ready are the people of Oyo State, of course they are my people. I am from here. Then how ready is His Excellency that also invited me to come and take up this task? How ready? Because when you are doing an advisory work, it is something for you to advise and it is another thing for you to have the back up of your principal. Those are the issues, but it wasn’t too much of a problem for me.
Maybe because of your training you felt that there wasn’t too much of security threat in Oyo State before you came. But there was the situation in the Oyo North even from the days of Governor Lam Adesina where people got run out of their farms and there had been conflicts between herders and farmers as well as some other persons and community members. So those were consider serious enough?
From the perspective you are looking at it; it wasn’t an issue. And like I said I had reports of what was happening from all parts of the country and you will not compare that with what have been happening in other states like Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau and Borno states.
Even in the days of the former governor of Oyo State, Alhaji Lam Adesina that you talk of, the problems we have always had with farmers and pastoralists have always been there. And whenever I talk to people I say that it is even historical because our parents then had goats, even chickens that they reared in our names. Your mother will probably say ‘This goat belongs to Fatai. This goat belongs to this other person.’ In a polygamous home where the goat that is ascribed to be your own goes to eat the cassava or the yam belonging to your stepmother, there will be trouble.
It has a linkage. It is just that at a point in time sadly, I don’t want to use that language, political elements, and the people that have been taking Nigeria hostages made this thing to fester. It has been traditional that when dry season is coming we would see people rearing animals moving from one place to the other. We have the old Fadama line that has the greens and all of that, that they will move their animals and there have always been the traditional ways of handling this, especially in the old Western Region, of which Oyo State was part. When the traditional institutions were still very strong, unlike now, even those people (from outside the Western Region) that were rearing the animals they used to comply because they respected the traditional institutions.
What then changed?
Some elements just came using the people in power to feel that they are untouchable. That was what happened, because when Baba Lam was the governor people use to refer to the fact that the late president (Muhammadu Buhari) came to say that the Miyetti Allah people were going to storm Oyo State or whatever. It was just the rascality of some elements.
Why personally I have also felt when people talk that you are profiling to say Fulani were this or that, (they are not aware that) some of these animals that they are rearing belong to people that are not the Fulanis. If you look at some of the animals, you will find that they belong to retired generals, permanent secretaries ,people that are high in the uniform services and people that are high in public office who decided to do farming as a business they look for some elements from the North to come and handle the rearing of animals for them. There have been occasions when these people were arrested and the person that will call you is probably a prominent person from this our locality who will say, ‘Look, please don’t mind that boy. I did not ask him to take the cows to where he has taken them to. So, what are we going to do now?’ They don’t want their animals to suffer. They will plead for you to release the animals and say hold on to the person rearing the animals. We are not always truthful to ourselves.
I am saying that some of these things are perpetrated by some people who feel that they are untouchable because Nigeria is what it is. It is because we don’t allow the law to reign. Because if we allow the law to reign, we shouldn’t profile people, because it is not whether someone is Igbo or Fulani or Yoruba; criminals are criminals.
The problem is that the common man is the one who suffers the most for this insecurity. Why is it difficult for the security agencies to arrest the situation?
I was in Benue State, I met a devastation. I met the farmer/herder clashes and at a point in time when I was in Force Headquarters as a principal staff officer to the IG, we did an analysis. There was a time we even said, if not for now that the issue of Boko Haram hadn’t taken the kind of toll that the farmer/herder clashes had taken, (the clashes brought more tragedy than we had from Boko Haram).
The government must be serious. They have been talking of having a ranching system for a long time…
Boko Haram started in the North-east, spread to the North-west but when you talk of farmer/herder clashes it is the whole of the West Africa. It is not limited to the North; rather it cuts across the whole of West Africa. And at a point in time we collected data, I don’t know whether it is still available at the Force Headquarters, the number of lives and the destruction caused by farmer/herder clashes are far more than what we had with Boko Haram at that point in time. I don’t know whether that has changed because I have left the service. And of course, why we are not having solution is because we are not truthful in this country. We are wicked in this country. Starting from the security up to the political leaders. What does it take to solve this problem? Someone is coming to say ‘My cow is my life’,and I am coming to say ‘The yam I planted is also my life’, why would someone feel that he is more superior with his cows to go and destroy my farm. This is my personal experience: I had a plantain farm in Abanla, despite my relationship with the people in the community and of course with the job I have done as well some people took their cows there to go and destroy my 20 acres of plantain plantation. By the time you start taking steps, you will find out that people will think you are high handed or whatever.
If we allow the law to take its course, if we are sincere to ourselves, and of course, if from what everybody has concluded, that the Miyetti Allah somehow lack control over some of the people that do this. You are putting cows on the road and you will go and put a child in charge, while you will hide somewhere. There is no excuse. And when havoc is committed, you will come and say that ‘oh, you have an inalienable right to live anywhere in the country’. Where is that done? But the government must be serious. They have been talking of having a ranching system for a long time, and we have been educating people.
From my experience in Benue State, and even here, when you put the people together, you will agree that ‘let us do this and that’ in order to control this. But people will sit down with you, they will laugh with you, but when you leave, they do other things. Government too is not helping matters. For instance, we have been saying, like in Oyo State, there was a time, yes you mentioned the governor then, did he not resolve it? Because in the course of investigation they will come and tell you that the security apparatus, especially the police, that they connived, or whatever. But we have been able to sit down to say, ‘Look, it is not right to do this, it is not right to do that.’ It is more or less a thing of the past in this state. Oyo State is managing the situation with the system that is put in place by the governor. We are trying to understand each other. Just like in every other state, what stops us from having a census of who is here? We sat down with the herder community before.
You will come and tell us that the guys that brought cows to this community they are the ones from Benin Republic, and meanwhile you have connections, one way or the other, why wouldn’t you be able to stop them? To the extent that they are not just doing that, they are now adding kidnapping to what they do. It is not fair. So, in some cases they have conspirators among our own people.
I was going to ask that how do you handle situations where you have community leaders being part of the problem?
That is where the law should take its course. We have situations where, sadly, some of the Baales tell you that ‘how much is the government paying us? They say the only thing they have is the land.’ Unfortunately, when they want to do a burial of someone that died 20 years ago and someone has come to give them 10 cows, they will now say “Take the whole of this place and bring your cows there.” Who does that? And that is why I will toe the line of His Excellency, Governor Seyi Makinde to say that when things happen like this, it is not about profiling. It is not about saying it is Fulani or Igbo or Hausa. Whoever that has breached the law, whoever that has caused havoc, don’t look at where they come from, treat them as criminals. And that was one of the things we did in Benue State when I got there… The nine months that I spent in Benue State, I treated people who breached the law strictly as I would deal with criminals. After destroying farms, criminals will kill policemen, as they killed people in the community; they sent a lot of people to IDP (internally displaced persons) camp. We dealt with criminals and that was how we were able to handle what we handled there.
Benue State is one of the states known to be the epicentre of the herder/farmer clashes. Tell us more about how you handled the situation during your tenure as the commissioner of police there?
When we had the anti-grazing law, you know that Benue State was the first to have it? People said it is difficult to enforce, and I said it is not difficult. The Constitution and laws give the Nigeria Police the obligation to obey all laws. In Zamfara State, when they were doing that Sharia thing, the Constitution says obey all laws. So, if a state has enacted a law, the police has no choice than to obey. If the commissioner of Police is there and he is saying, ‘No, I have to take instructions from the IGP before I obey.’, that commissioner of Police should be taken away. It is the law, you must obey it. You can go and check, during my nine months of service in Benue State, I prosecuted people under the anti-grazing law.
I first called the people together, with the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Agriculture. I said this is the law. There are certain aspects of the law that are difficult. If you are giving me a responsibility to say if I see 300 cows in a farm, I should arrest the person rearing the cows, I should also seize the cows. I was able to tell the governor then that… it is not my policemen that will carry the cow. You have to give me the vehicle to carry the cows, and the place to put the cows and the veterinary doctors that will treat the cows… We prosecuted people under the anti-grazing law and no one challenged me because I was enforcing the law, and I was paid to make sure that people obey the law.
After a security council meeting earlier in the year the state government said it was going to integrate traditional leaders and local government council leaders into its security architecture. How far have you gone about this?
We have been doing that… In our security council meeting, apart from the normal security council meeting every quarter with the governor, His Excellency, Governor Seyi Makinde approved an expanded security meeting where the local government chairmen will be there and the traditional rulers will also be there. In that meeting, the local government chairmen will give reports from their territories; traditional rulers will come and say these are our challenges in their domains.
Part of the things that have come out of that meeting is the reiteration by Governor Seyi Makinde that local government chairmen should ensure that they hold security meetings in their councils twice every month. Even though there are times when the traditional rulers said that they don’t hold the meeting twice and they send reports to the office of the governor, which is also endorsed to the office of the Special Adviser on Security. Managing security is an expensive venture. (But with his commitment the governor keeps faith with) the partnership that the state makes with the local governments to say that every month certain amounts should go to the security people, the local governments and the traditional rulers. We have a committee that manages fund that is put together by the SA on security. We have members of the security services, the members representing the traditional rulers and of course the chairman of ALGON (Association of Local Governments of Nigeria) will sit together to administer this fund.
I like to draw you back to the issue of profiling each time there is a security breach. I guess this idea comes from the belief that some persons are treated as sacred cows. I remember the case of Sunday Igboho when it was alleged that when Fulanis came to the area and perpetrated some atrocities and are arrested, some people from above will order their release. There is another allegation about the commercial motorcycle riders who come from certain area and are regarded as untouchable. Yes, for people like you and I we can say that profiling is wrong, but for people in the street, the belief is that some people are above the law?
You know I am talking frankly and sincerely … you know with my experience in service … I have the feeling that Nigerians are the most gullible. What is known is that we are gullible Nigerians…It is not whether it is the police that has handled the case … security is security, I can give instances, it was so bad at some point that if any vehicle has a breakdown along Lagos/Ibadan Expressway or Ogbomoso/Ibadan Road, some people will take their telephones and say ‘Come o, they have brought the Fulani people here.’ even you dressed like a northerner, they don’t want to know who you are.
There were instances when we get to the place and found out that the commercial vehicle that they claimed were filled with people from the North was actually carrying our own people returning from either ABU or Sokoto and dressed like people from the North. As to allegations of orders coming from above when they arrest people, I cannot say that I have not heard of that, even when I was in service. Anybody wearing the uniform, police or military, you must be independent … for example, like I have told you. It is not even a call from Abuja or somewhere. A call from one retired Yoruba man who has acquired those cows or something like that who is now coming to say that it is my cows that you have arrested. That is number one.
Then,number two, in my interaction like I said, I am from this state, and I am from Ibadan, and I can say it that, Yoruba people will say ‘Ejo lanko, a un ko’ja’ (it is better to marshal one’s point, than to learn how to fight).
I don’t blame our people it is because of lack of trust in the security system, lack of trust in government. Anything that is government they don’t trust because they believe that if they go to the police station, the police will say ‘bring money’ or compromise or something like that. If they go to the Army, they will say Army man is an Hausa man, so they won’t go. Somebody is coming to report that he has been attacked, the first they go to is a radio station! Or they go to the local vigilante.
Those ones may not ask any question, they will go there …. And set their settlement on fire. Mind you, what you have said that this person did to you is that he destroyed your farm. You have now gone to use non-state actor elements to go and set the whole place where they are living on fire and also killed people. That is murder case. If we had followed the normal reportage line, which I said I don’t blame them… Let us follow the law. If we follow the law, we are sure that the law will take its course.
In Oyo State, I think it started with us during Covid-19 pandemic. We now said, ‘In order for us to have a collaborative way of doing things, in order to check it, let us change our concept. The security architecture of Oyo State is now the integrated security concept.
What do we mean by integrated security concept? It is a whole society approach to security and policing. A handshake between the state actors and non-state actors. Where we have drawn a guideline on how we meet ourselves. We factor what we call the voluntary policing sector. We asked all the local governments, from the Joint Task Force, the non-state actors will work together with the state actors. If you run to the police station to report that somebody is destroying your farm, because we run an integrated security network, the police, which is the state actors will work together with the non-state actors to go there together because the non-state actors have the knowledge of the locality more than the state actors.
When you are doing the work somebody will not come behind and say that these people have overuse the power that they have. They align in their operation and are able to defend whatever they do. If anybody is coming from Abuja to say that a Sunday Igboho has gone to commit havoc, the state actors will be able to say, ‘No, the element of OPC (Oodua Peoples Congress) or Sunday Igboho we worked together for this operation.’ That is one of the critical solutions we have provided to ensure that we clear all doubts. And of course, His Excellency, Governor Seyi Makinde has also come up with a unique arrangement …, which we do through the local government, in collaboration with the Amotekun Security Unit … I am not saying it is 100 per cent. I am not saying that it is perfect but these are things that we’ve being doing here.
Will you say that the security arrangement has produced results enough for people in the grassroots to say there is an enabling environment for them to live and work without apprehension?
Yes, and you have been following what is happening in Oyo State, to an extent, we have been reducing these areas of friction. This premises is where we have the state security control room. What do we have in the state security control room? Like a lot of people don’t know that Oyo State has what they call the city watch. With our city watch, the CCTV cameras even cover up to Ogbomoso. We were able to put cameras at exit and entry points, in Ibadan towards Ijebu-Ode, towards Osun State, we have at Asejire, we have cameras everywhere.
This mast you see here is also in different places. When Governor Seyi Makinde got into office in 2019, he met that city watch arrangement made by Governor (Abiola) Ajimobi but it was limited in coverage. That is number one. Number two, it was extremely expensive to maintain because they have to pay service providers. We had to look inward and we approached the governor that we have to sustain it. It was moribund, it wasn’t working. (That was when the use of the mast came in). We expanded the coverage. The machine that was acquired then but was not licensed before Governor Seyi Makinde came because the previous administration couldn’t pay (for the license). Governor Seyi Makinde licensed it for life. So that the system can continue to work.
Ours has been proactive. Governor Seyi Makinde has consistently,periodically provided for what we call clearance operation within the old Oyo National Park, which stretches from here to Niger State
Integrated to that is the approval given by the NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission) for Oyo State to have what we call Citizens enquiry number, some persons call it emergency number, the number 615. Anywhere you are if you call 615 it comes straight to the control room. This is different from the national emergency number. When you call the state emergency number the call comes into the control room. And in the state control room, you have the police, you have Amotekun, you have the Road Safety, you have Civil Defence, you have somebody from the Ministry of Health. You know, it is a combination of all the security services, so that if you get a call for any emergency, they can respond from here. They have the connections with all the security agencies.
One of the elements that have made it to work is the kind of communications that we have in Oyo State. I can also say proudly that since around 2019/2020, with the communication system, which His Excellency facilitated for us, the Commissioner of Police in Oyo State can be in Abuja and relate with all the patrol teams in Oyo State. Most of the states have copied that. They mirrored what we have.
In the South-west today, because what have been done in Oyo State, we can say that we can conveniently say that we are integrating the whole of South-west. And in Oyo State we can also say it is integrated among the security agencies. Amotekun has, Operation Burst has, so that we can have inter-connectivity.
In 2019, immediately the governor came into office, he negotiated, for us to strengthen the Oyo North (Oke Ogun) axis, because we have a border with the Benin Republic, that we should have another police striking force. That is why we have a second Mobile Police Force Squadron in Ago-Are. We used to have just one police Mobile Force Squadron in Ibadan, at Eleyele, the Lion of the West, since the days of the Western Region. But when you look at Oyo State, in terms of size and the peculiarity of the state, some states are not as big as Oyo State, yet they have four Mobile Police Squadron Force.
Governor Seyi Makinde approached the IG in 2019, and said ‘Look, we need it. ’The Mobile Force is the arm of the police that when crisis is getting higher than the conventional policing, you can’t say you are moving mobile policemen from here to Saki or Kishi. Before they get there a lot of havoc would have been committed. That was why we negotiated…and His Excellency took the bull by the horns because the police, the federal government, did not have a vote for it, but the governor said we will fund this. First, we got a temporary site at Ago Are, one of the facilities left by NTC, which we refurbished. Very soon the governor has promised to will the mobile police a befitting ultra-modern office in Ago-Are. These are the things that the governor has done. Prior to 2019 they had what they called SRS (Swift Response Squad), which was moribund. But, because the governor listens, when we told him that besides Operation Burst, we should also strengthen the SRS, so the Swift Response Squad was strengthen with vehicles. Not only that, we fuel them, we make sure that the security elements in them were also provided with stipends for feeding. And the governor has been consistent with the provision of the necessary requirements since 2019.
When it was discovered that the police stations had the problem of lack of vehicles for operation, the governor provided vehicles for all the divisional headquarters in the state, and the area commanders. I don’t know to what extent that was done prior to 2019, but from that time, all divisional heads and area commanders have been supported by the state government since 2019. This was to motivate them because what comes from the federal level could not sustain them. All that support for the state actors and in conjunction with the integrated security architecture that we are doing we made sure that the office of the Special Adviser on Security also serves as a clearing house. So apart from the normal state security council meeting most times we are proactive in the way we do things. We call for meetings to review our activities and all the heads of security apparatus will decide on new things to do to improve on the security of the state. Part of what will be considered is the feedback from the traditional institutions and local government councils. We also relate with the neighbouring states.
In what ways do you collaborate with states, and what are the success stories in this regard?
We have had regular cooperation with the Ogun State government in particular, especially in the coverage of our highways. For instance, the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway and towards Omi Adio to Abeokuta; when we found out that we were having issues on the Osun State flank, (we reached out to the government there). There are times that we have been engaged with Kwara State. Some elements are running from Niger State to Kwara to come and infiltrate Oyo State. Ours has been proactive. Governor Seyi Makinde has consistently periodically provided for what we call clearance operation within the old Oyo National Park, which stretches from here to Niger State. That is how we have been checking what could have been some incursion into Oyo State. And we are lucky that the General Officer Commanding, GOC, the 2 Division of the Nigerian Army, whose coverage extends to Kwara State is based here. The GOC with his authority will get elements from Kwara to join them. Our governor provides the wherewithal for such operations.
Good enough that you said that of your security operations involve the non-state actors. But in most cases the communities will first run to the non-state actors as first line of defence. Do you also undertake training for the non-state actors?
It is expected that the community people will run to the non-state actors first. It is the issue of trust. The people do not easily trust anything government. If you plead with them till tomorrow, once governmental element is involved, they will not trust. They will say, “Don’t mind the politicians, they just want to use us to make money.” So when we came up with that integrated security architecture, one of the things we did was to engage with the non-state actors.
And I will use Ibadan as an example. You know Ibadan is unique. The Mogajis are the heads of their different families. There is the Ibadan Compound Head Initiative, which is part of the integrated security architecture. And I remember that the first interactive session we had with them was at Ilaji. Some of the elements were trained with the support of our traditional leaders. In fact, the present Olubadan, Oba Rasheed Ladoja , had not become Olubadan then, but he supported. He provided money to support the training that we did. Here in Oyo State we ensure that there are no frictions among the different state actors and non-state actors. Even within the OPC, we have the OPC Gani Adams, OPC Fasheun, the Soludero and others, we always ensure that everybody come together. That has not been totally achieved though, but what we preach to them is that you have to first drop the toga of the smaller group you belong to and see yourself as element of the voluntary policing sector. We do that to prevent the unnecessary rivalry, even among state actors. We say, “Drop the toga and see yourself as working for the general good”. We know that people believe the non-state actors more. Because if you put all the state actors, police, the military, DSS, even immigration, including Amotekun, together, they are not enough. You will still need these non-state actors. See yourselves more as supporting the security system but as belonging to one faction.
It is good you have been a police officer, and a police office that had been acting in the field while in service. And so you will be familiar with this conflict between the police and OPC. When OPC would say that after they had foiled a crime and led the police to the scene the police then claimed the victory without giving the OPC credit. How do you manage that here now?
That is why you have to continue to talk to them. I must tell you in my 35 years in service as a police man, I have come to see the service as the school of life… When I was in Lagos I did not have any problem with the non-state actors, because the voluntary policing system was developed for us by the DFID. When the concept came, as the principal staff officer to the IGP, I was part of it. When I was posted to Lagos, I went for that strategy because most of the areas in Lagos had the voluntary policing units, areas like Agege, Mushin. And at that time the DFID was still funding it… My success in Lagos can be attributed to the way we related. There wasn’t any time that I had problem over OPC and police clashing. Instead we worked with them to deal with some prevailing crimes in early 2015.
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