Why herdsmen must leave Oyo State, by activist

An activist, Sunday Adeyemo, has insisted that Fulani herdsmen must leave Oyo State, lamenting that people recruited into Amotekun Corps are educated people who do not appreciate traditional powers.

Adeyemo, who spoke yesterday on a Yoruba programme of an Ibadan-based radio station, said the Fulani herders had more sophisticated weapons than operatives of the Southwest Security Network, Amotekun.

He lamented that herdsmen must produce the killers of prominent Yoruba persons, adding that the Amotekun Corps should not be for the educated, but for traditionalists, who are traditionally fortified.

The government is supposed to involve the Aare Onakakanfo and the O’odua Peoples Congress (OPC), Agbekoya, hunters and if I am invited, I’m ready to help. I have men who can assist if the situation gets out of hand.

“One Jabele called my attention to how herdsmen are killing, kidnapping Yoruba people in the area and how their Seriki collects ransom from their victims. I intervened after the leaders called me to do so.”

“When I got there, they complained of the recent killings. They expressed their helplessness and that the situation had become unbearable and they wanted the Fulani herdsmen out of their domains.

“When I asked of their head, they mentioned Seriki and that no one could confront him. They said the Seriki is so powerful that when the police arrested his sons, he threatened crisis within 72 hours and the police released them.

“But when I got to Seriki’s residence, he called a senior police officer and gave me the telephone. Just then, one of my boys alerted me that a Fulani man had pointed a gun at me, I approached him and dared him to shoot. We took the gun,” he narrated.

He added that shortly after that experience another herdsman fired a shot and that his men grabbed the pump-action gun.

I went to the Seriki and told him: “These are guns” and he apologized, adding: “At that point, I insisted that those who killed Doctor Aborode, Alhaja and others must be fished out. He responded by saying: “I am scolding the boys who did the job and I said really?

“What surprised is that they said the President was one of them. They boasted that only President Muhammadu Buhari can order them out, but insisted that if that was the case, all of them should leave if they cannot produce the killers and abductors of Yoruba people.”