Former Deputy Governor of Ondo State and Governorship candidate of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2024 governorship election, Agboola Ajayi has bemoaned insecurity in the state in the last few weeks.

Ajayi in a statement signed by him said the rate at which people are kidnapped and killed is nothing to write home about and the government must take proactive measures against insecurity in the state.

Titled “Ondo State and The Insecurity Challenge”, Ajayi said the people of the state are troubled about an emerging culture of kidnapping, banditry and killings.

According to him, not less than a hundred people have been kidnapped or killed by criminals who invaded the state from elsewhere in recent times.

Reacting to the protest by some farmers who shut down the Governor’s office over the killing of five farmers, Ajayi said “Today, the people of Akure felt that they had enough of this ugly development, they invaded the premises of the Government office to express their indignation and frustration over this ridiculous development for which the APC government of Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa has no answer.

“Let me underscore the fact that the security challenge confronting Ondo State is not an entirely new development, but governments before the present have adeptly managed this odious crisis and disallowed it to fester to the level it is today.

“While I was deputy Governor of Ondo State between 2017-2021, working dutifully alongside my late boss, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, we developed a robust plan and implemented actions that put banditry and criminality in check. We stopped outrightly open grazing of cattle by herdsmen and sanity ruled.

‘Unfortunately, the gains of that era have been allowed to slip away and the people are now in pain! While I condemn the sloppiness and lethargy with which Governor Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa is conducting the affairs of our State, it completely underscores his ill-preparedness and incompetence to be in the saddle.

“I wish to call attention to my campaign manifestos where I canvassed for new thinking in solving security challenges and urged absolute proactive measures to solve them, I equally laid emphasis on the lethargic approach of Mr Aiyedatiwa during the Governorship debate.

“The need to take a full grip of this crisis cannot be delayed a day longer, I, therefore, call on the Governor to seek help and take actions that will take Ondo State back from the grip of invading bandits forthwith.

“The Government must revamp Amotekun immediately and ensure the re-creation of Armed Forest Guards that will police our forests and uproot all invading criminal elements so that peace can reign in our State.

“Due fact is accorded the fact that Mr Governor takes over a billion naira as security vote, it is time to make the administration of this fund bear results in the interest of the State, we the people do not deserve anything less.”