Fayemi says money raised from kidnapping is being used to fund Boko Haram insurgency

GOVERNOR Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State has revealed that there is a correlation between insurgency in the north eastern part of the country and banditry and kidnapping as it appears that ransom fees are being used to fund terrorist activities.

Nigeria is currently being wracked by insecurity as terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, rape, armed robbery and  communal violence are daily occurrences. In the northeast of the country, Boko Haram have been waging an insurgency against the state since 2009, while armed Fulani herdsmen, armed bandits and kidnappers have turned many parts of Nigeria into no-go areas.

According to Governor Fayemi, the same set of people were responsible for many of the crimes, as the masterminds used the ransom they collected from kidnapping in other parts of the country to fund insurgency in the northeast. Governor Fayemi, who is also the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, disclosed this earlier today after a meeting with President Muhammadu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

Governor Fayemi said: “There is a direct correlation between insurgency in the northeast and what we are seeing manifesting itself as banditry in the northwest or kidnapping in the southwest. Some of the people involved in these are also the ones responsible for insurgency.

They are using the resources they make from kidnapping for the activities they are conducting in the northeast, so we need to take a comprehensive look at all these things and not treat them in compartments. We must treat them as a comprehensive issue and then tackle them collectively.”

He added that military action alone would not resolve the nation’s security challenges, pointing out that they required political will to tackle. According to the governor, social measures are also needed to address the problems as a lot of them stem from poverty and a lack of opportunity.

Governor Fayemi added: “I don’t think we are naive enough to think that it is simply a military action that will resolve all these security challenges. They have root causes and the root causes require political will, political action on our part against poverty, inequality and disconnections between our youths and the government.”