Babatope Okeowo 
The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation Afenifere yesterday asked the Federal Government to overhaul the security architecture and “include modern technology more comprehensively in the efforts at combating banditry and terrorism”.
The group, who met at the Akure home of Pa Reuben Fasoranti, also asked the government to license the South-West Security Network Agency codenamed Amotekun Corps to carry “lethal weapons”.
In a communiqué after the meeting, Afenifere said Nigerians can go about their daily business “without the fear of being kidnapped or harassed in any way”.
It said: “There is also the urgent need to include modern technology more comprehensively in the efforts at combating banditry and terrorism.
“Doing so would check if not totally stop, the incidences of kidnapping and sundry banditry now ravaging the land. “Such reworking should include accelerating actions on the decision of the government to have state police.”
While calling for greater cooperation between Amotekun Corps and other security agencies, the group advised the government to initiate command and control posts to be installed across all the local government areas, saying it would assist in information sharing in real time.
Afenifere insisted on the need to ensure that Yoruba language is used as a medium of communication. The group called on governments in Yoruba-speaking states to make Yoruba the medium of teaching at elementary levels of our education: kindergarten, nursery, primary, and junior secondary schools.
Afenifere urged the legislature in Yoruba-speaking states to make Yoruba the language of conducting their legislative business as much as possible.
