Self Determination Groups in the South-west have thrown their weight behind the setting up of state police, saying  that “is the only panacea to cases of kidnapping which has become rampant in Nigeria,” and appealed to governors to support state police.

The groups stated this at a stakeholders’ meeting held at Airport Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, on Friday with a topic: ‘Western Nigeria Global Summit on Security and Livelihood.’

They said it was time for governors and local government chairmen to be mandated to secure the citizens “because they are the chief security officers of their territories, and everyone of them should be held accountable for insecurity in their areas.”

Speaking at the stakeholders’ meeting, one of the conveners of the meeting, Comrade Adewale Adeoye, said Nigerians had always wanted to live on their own terms and not on the terms of others.

“But now many Nigerians are confronted with the challenges of living under the threats of attack, and many people are dying in their own land, and they need hope instead of despair,” he said.

He lamented that their means of survival were being threatened, and that most Yoruba lands had become terrorist havens.

Speaking at the summit, the lead convener, Comrade Wale Oshun said the South-west had a lot of work to do in securing their people, maintaining that one of the reasons for convening the meeting was to seek an end to the senseless killings in the region.