Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams, has declared he has the capacity and network to confront the surging terrorist threat across the South-West, even as he accuses regional governors of ignoring his warnings for two years.
Yorubaland is under siege — and one of its most prominent traditional leaders says he has the answer. Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Gani Adams, has stepped forward with a bold declaration: he has the capacity and network to confront the kidnappers and terrorists now spreading rapidly across Nigeria’s South-West.
The alarm comes in the wake of a chilling attack on schools in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, where gunmen abducted 39 pupils and students — including a two-year-old child — alongside seven teachers. One teacher was killed during the attack, while another was reportedly beheaded in captivity. The brazen raid has shattered the long-held belief that the South-West was insulated from the mass abductions plaguing northern Nigeria.
Security experts warn the growing concern is no longer limited to terrorists operating from forests, but to sleeper cells now embedded within towns and cities. The threat, they caution, is far more advanced than most people realise. Adams claims terrorists have infiltrated at least 40 of the South-West’s 137 local government areas.
In a strongly worded statement titled “Yorubaland is troubled, darkness looms,” Adams addressed governors and monarchs directly. He accused South-West governors of failing to respond to repeated warnings and security proposals over the past two years, despite the region’s deteriorating situation.
Adams urged leaders to grant him permission to act, stressing that “the time to wage war against kidnapping is now,” and cautioning that continued silence is being “misconstrued as foolishness.”
His proposed solution centres on collaboration — mobilising the Aare-in-Council alongside 14 regional organisations, not just the Oodua People’s Congress, in a unified counter-terrorism network working alongside government forces. Whether South-West governors will finally answer the call remains the critical question.
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