Governors of the Southwest, end the illegality now!

PENTH-LAST week, disaster struck in Osogbo, Osun State, when some suspected gangsters, popularly known as omo onile, beat to death a commercial motorcyclist while ‘raiding’ construction sites in the area. The motorcyclist simply identified himself as Seun, who reportedly passed away in a hospital on Saturday, January 21 after injuries sustained the previous day. According to eyewitnesses, the three crooks hired Seun around noon on Friday, January 20, and instructed him to show them around some construction sites in the area. However, after the deceased fulfilled his own part of the bargain and his pleas to the crooks to pay for the services rendered failed, he refused their request to take them to other construction sites. It was at this point that the enraged gangsters pounced on him and beat him into stupor. Some of his fellow cyclists who were near the scene of the commotion then took him to a hospital for treatment. Sadly, he passed away in the early hours of Saturday, January 21. Naturally, the incident sparked protests as enraged residents of the area who learned that police officers from the Ota Efun Division had arrested some of the crooks in question stormed the police station and demanded that they be released before them. They threatened to burn down the station if the police did not comply.

Of course, omo-onile violence in Osun State and indeed throughout the Southwest geopolitical zone is not a new phenomenon. For example, in January last year, the gang of thugs whose trade it is to invade construction sites and beat and torture workers for daring to work in their domain without first getting their permission, caused chaos in Ilesa, Osun State , as they stormed a new building being roofed over in the Omi-Tuntun area of ​​the city and demanded money from the workers at the site. They were opposed by the workers on the site and five lives were lost in the ensuing pandemonium. This regime of violence can be seen in other states of the Southwest where unclean criminals have wreaked havoc for years. From Lagos to Abeokuta and from Ibadan to Osogbo, omo onile tactics are the same. They have caused physical mutilations and shed blood for years.

The omo onile demand exorbitant amounts from the owners of the sites they invade, and they (site owners) can only refuse if they are armed or protected by uniformed men, especially soldiers, who can restrain their (omo onile) violence . Often the future landlords are sentenced to pay under penalty of death. Armed with clubs, machetes, knives and sometimes guns and stinking of alcohol, the omo onile usually turn construction sites into war zones, warning construction workers and their employers to do their bidding or be sent to hell. They are known to seize people’s land while working for some well-connected, wealthy criminals in society. In most cases these are omo onile relations of landowners who have already received payment for the lands on which houses, shops, offices or religious centers are built, but they do not care; they are either obeyed or they create total chaos.

Because the omo onile phenomenon has lasted a bit too long, the perpetrators have recently become even more brutal. For example, in Ibadan, Oyo state, a certain gang of omo onile is said to have an office in the New Garage area of ​​Ibadan where they ask “suspects” to give statements, as people do at a regular police station. In one instance, a would-be landlord who opposed the omo onile antics was said to have been taken to Osun State and detained! Indeed, the omo onile’s sense of impunity is so widespread that they have been known to frighten even shop owners who take delivery of goods to replenish their stores. Drilling machines don’t dare to do their job without paying some fees. The criminals have made life difficult for many people.

The killing of omo onyles in Osun State and their continued violence in other Southwest states should invite deliberate and targeted action by state governments, not just asserting their authority as the only valid and legitimate authority in the country, but also by excluding all forms of unlawful exercise of authority over the people by criminals. It is true that some states have enacted anti-omo onile laws and consequently prosecuted suspects, but the omo-onile phenomenon has persisted, in part because of the unholy relationship between the outlaws and some unscrupulous police officers, and because most of the cases involving them are not even reported to the police. In December 2021, residents of Onibuku, Baba Ode, NAHCO and other communities in the Atan area, along the Sango-Idiroko highway in the Ado-Odo/Ota Local Council of Ogun State, reportedly fled the areas en masse after the ongoing attack of omo onile. This was despite existing legislation, as the government of Ibikunle Amosun in the state enacted the Anti-Land Grabbing Act in 2016, which stipulated 25 years in prison or the death penalty for perpetrators, as the case may be. Last year, the Oyo state government said land grabbing would no longer be tolerated in the state, as offenders face up to 15 years in prison. The government made this statement during the opening of a task force unit in Ibadan, the state capital. It urged the Seyi Makinde government to prioritize peace, order and security of life and property in the state.

We urge the governors of the Southwestern states to see omo onile’s takeover of civilian space as a direct challenge to their authority. They must respond with sufficient vehemence to stop this rule of non-state actors on their territory. They must enact the necessary laws and regulations to ban the activities of omo onile and ensure that the laws are strictly enforced to put an end to this threat. There needs to be awareness about anti-omo onile laws across the zone. Unlucky citizens are constantly subjected to torments by these bandits. This is a development that governments should stop if only to show that there is only one government on their territory and that citizens would not allow themselves to be extorted by criminals. We also urge civil society and the media to take up the advocacy against omo onile and not give them breathing space until they are completely rooted out of society. It goes without saying that the perpetrators of Osogbo’s murder should be prosecuted to the fullest extent permitted by law.

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