The Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere has said it is dangerous for the military to be deployed to tackle civil matters in some parts of the country.
This was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the monthly meeting of the group at the residence of its leader, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, in Akure, the Ondo State capital on Tuesday.
It stated, “The operation ostensibly, they said, is to confront the badoo menace. We stated that the badoogang has been decimated by the Nigeria Police and the OPC (Oodua Peoples Congress) in the area where it has occurred and we think if the group resurfaces, it is the duty of the police to deal with it without causing tension, invasion and harassment as it happened in the South-East during ‘Operation Crocodile Dance’.
“We insist that the military has no duty in going after badoo even if it comes back. We want the Federal Government to be careful with the spate at which it deploys solders all over the country. The other day, the Speaker of the House of Representative lamented that 28 out of the 36 states of the country are under one military operation or the other.
“The South-West has been adjudged the most peaceful area of the country. To now bring military here is to say that the entire country is not safe. They are sending a wrong signal to foreign investors and more importantly, the Federal Government should be reminded that before the coup of 1966, this was how the Balewa government started to transfer civil duty to military and the military now said they could take it themselves.”