Governor Okpebholo has a pointed message for anyone hoping to use Edo State as a base for criminal activity: it is not going to happen. The governor is speaking openly about a troubling pattern he says exists within the state, where some local residents are actively recruiting criminals from other parts of Nigeria to carry out crimes on Edo soil.
To counter this, volunteers have already been deployed deep into the forests across the state. Their job is straightforward: make sure criminal elements cannot settle, regroup, or operate from those areas. It is a ground-level response, human and determined, running alongside whatever formal security structures are already in place.
The governor's willingness to name the problem publicly, including the role some of his own people are playing in enabling it, signals that this conversation is only getting started.
Originally published by Premium Times.