Ekiti and Kwara states have agreed to take joint responsibility for monitoring the security situation in their boundary towns following threats in the areas.

A security meeting held on Tuesday at Otun Ekiti, brought together the leadership of the local governments of Moba, Ilejemeje, and Ero of Ekiti State, with their counterparts in Kwara State.

The meeting was in response to the threat of terrorists to attack the South-west states. The local governments are the major entry points from the North into the region.

The police in Ekiti had earlier issued an order of mobilisation to beef up security in the area councils.

Speaking on behalf of the meeting, the Chairman of Ero Local Council Development Area of Ekiti, Akin Alebiosu, admitted that the security alert was raised over the alleged infiltration of some forests in the South-west and North-central regions of the country.

Mr Alebiosu said though the alarm was still in the realm of conjecture, the four councils that shared borders between Ekiti and Kwara won’t treat such life-threatening panic lightly.

The council boss stated that they had decided to work together by rallying local hunters and Amotekun corps to patrol the boundaries to ward off bandits, who had taken advantage of the poor security in the area.

“This meeting was aimed at improving the security situation and how best to strengthen our security architecture in the current fight against kidnapping, killing, and herders-farmers clashes,” he said.

“It had been observed that anyone kidnapped in Ekiti was being freed in far away Kwara and those kidnapped in Kwara were brought to Ekiti and this shows that the borders must be fortified.

“Part of our strategies is to rally our local hunters and Amotekun to be on patrol 24 hours and this they will do in collaboration with conventional security formations like Army, Police, and NSCDC.”

The Chairman of Moba Local Government, Ibukun Adeoye, commended Governors Kayode Fayemi and AbdulRazaq Abdurahman for being sensitive to the plight of the people at the borders.

Mr Adeoye said the actions being taken by the two governors had helped in stemming the tide, adding that the situation could have been worse if not for the proactive steps being intensified by the two states.

There were indications last week that suspected Boko Haram terrorists as well as those of Islamic State West Africa Province were preparing to attack Lagos and some parts of the South-west.

The hint came from a leaked intelligence report which issued an alert to men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps across the country.

The leader of the O’odua People’s Congress, Gani Adams, had also followed the trend, alerting the public of possible terrorist attacks on the South-west states and warning that the armed groups had already infiltrated the region’s forest.