Usman Baba, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), has issued a warning that some separatist agitators operating under the banner of the Oduduwa Nation are stockpiling weapons in an effort to sabotage the general elections scheduled for February 25 and March 11 in Nigeria’s South-West geopolitical region.
On Monday, February 13, the IGP made this disclosure during a meeting with strategic police managers at the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
On Monday, the IGP spoke with police officers and remarked,
As you are aware, if some crimes of critical importance to national security are not sufficiently suppressed, our attempts to firmly establish a peaceful electioneering process could be undermined.
These include terrorism and banditry, which have devastated numerous settlements in the North-West and North-Central with detrimental repercussions on the population’ economic and social well-being.
In an effort to sabotage the 2023 general elections in the South East geopolitical zone, violent secessionist campaigns by IPOB/ESN members have been directed at a number of symbols of democratic governance, including INEC assets, police stations and personnel, as well as other security agencies and Federal Government infrastructures.
The Oduduwa Nation Agitators’ expanding operations, which, according to intelligence sources, have been trying to undermine the peace, security, and electoral process in the South-West geopolitical zone, are additional significant crimes.
In 2021, secessionist activity became more prevalent in the South-West geopolitical zone. Campaigner for the Yoruba Nation, Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho, was in charge of the uprising.
The raid on Igboho’s Ibadan home by the Department of State Services on July 1, 2021, however, calmed the unrest. He managed to get away and was apprehended by security personnel in the Benin Republic. He was later granted bail and released, but he hasn’t gone back to Nigeria.
