A former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo today met with leaders of the Gan-Allah Fulani Development Association of Nigeria (GAFDAN), an umbrella group for Fulani ethnic organisations in Nigeria, over kidnapping and insecurity challenges in the Southwest. The meeting held at the boardroom of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) at Oke – Mosan, Abeokuta.

The GAFDAN National Chairman, Alhaji Sale Bayari led delegates of the association, drawn from Southwest states, Kogi and Kwara States to the meeting.

Also at the meeting were spokesman of the Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin and Mr Dayo Adewole, son of the former Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, who was kidnapped recently in Oyo State. Obasanjo, Bayari and Adewole had given brief remarks before journalists were asked to step out for the closed door meeting.

The former President said the round table meeting was put together to interrogate kidnapping and other insecurity challenges confronting the region with a view to proffering solutions. He said the former Minister’s son, a victim of kidnapping, was invited to the meeting to narrate his ordeals and be part of the problem-solving initiative.

Obasanjo maintained that a number of the insecurity challenges were shrouded in the dark, saying “we all need to be in the light to proffer solutions.

“We are all in darkness, all of us, we are in the darkness. We need to be in the light.

“I want to learn from you; I hope you will learn from me too. And at the end of the meeting, we will be able to proffer solutions to the happenings in the region,” Obasanjo said.

Bayari thanked Obasanjo for inviting them to state “our own side of the story.” (Daily Trust)