The Yoruba socio-cultural organization, Afenifere, has described the announcement by the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, that the federal government may declare a state of emergency in Anambra State as a self-indictment.
Afenifere said Malami’s remark was more of a verdict of failure on the part of the federal government to provide security rather than the failure of the Anambra State government.
Jare Ajayi, National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, said: “To shift the failure-blame to the state government is therefore shocking and unfortunate.”
In a statement he signed, Ajayi said: “It was in order for the federal government to warn that the incessant violence in the state was unacceptable and may lead to undesirable consequence, but it is a height of blame game and hypocrisy to put all the blame on the state government when it is clear that the main security apparatuses in the country are controlled exclusively by the federal government.
“The highest any state government in Nigeria is allowed to do in terms of security is to set up local vigilante groups who cannot carry equipment necessary to combat insecurity in this 21st security. The kind of weapon they could carry under the present Nigerian law is the type a person going to hunt for game in the bush can carry while those they are supposed to confront are armed with almost the most sophisticated weapons available.”
