The chairman of Ifelodun Local Government in Kwara State, Hadji AbdulRasheed Yusuf, has explained why all seven council chairmen in the Kwara South senatorial district initially agreed to shut their cattle markets and why the decision was later reversed.
He stated that it wasn’t a mistake that the decision was taken, nor was it due to pressure that it was reversed.
Dishing out his achievements on his one-year anniversary as council chairman to newspaper correspondents in Ilorin, he said they took the decision after diligent investigation backed by security findings.
According to him, security agencies and security-conscious individuals had previously wondered why “kaara” (cattle markets) wouldn’t open for business before 12 noon and wouldn’t close until 2 a.m.
Featuring on the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Correspondents’ Chapel’s “Newkeg,” the council chief stated that it was discovered that informants visited the markets at night to pass information to bandits.
He stated: “We shut cattle markets when we noticed that informants come to the markets to exchange information with the bandits.
“That was why we shut the kaara market, and when we did that, we were able to cut the practice.
“But later, we all agreed to reopen, but with serious monitoring. This we did by restricting activities to between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. daily,” he explained.
Yusuf confessed bitterly that “virtually, almost everybody in Ifelodun has turned informant to bandits; you don’t even know whom to trust.”
According to him, it became bothersome and worrisome when security agencies informed the council authorities that over 98 per cent of those kidnapped are Fulanis, not Yorubas.
