From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Against the backdrop of the abduction of former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and former presidential candidate, Chief Olu Falae, prominent Yoruba leaders rose from an emergency summit in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital yesterday and handed a red card to Fulani herdsmen in the South-West.
The leaders included President of Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), General Adeyinka Adebayo (retd), who was a former military governor of the defunct Western Region; Chairman of pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and political organisation, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo; and a retired archbishop of Methodist Church Nigeria, Most Rev. Ayo Ladigbolu. Others were Dr. Fredrick Fasheun, Chief Gani Adams, Sir Olaniwun Ajayi, Prof. Banji Akintoye, Dr. Kunle Olajide, Adetowun Ogunseye and Chief Idowu Sofola, among others.
They all frowned at the abduction of Falae by Fulani herdsmen and described it as unacceptable to the Yoruba race.
The summit was entitled: “National Insecurity and the Menace of Fulani Herdsmen in Yorubaland.”
In the communiqué read to reporters by Dr. Kunle Olajide, Yoruba leaders sought an end to grazing in Yorubaland and directed all nomadic herdsmen to wind up their activities in the region. Failure to adhere, according to them, may lead to a breakdown of law and order.
The communiqué also demanded immediate arrest and trial of culprits involved in the kidnap of Falae, adding that those found culpable in the alleged killing and torture of farmers on their farmlands by the herdsmen should be dealt with accordingly.
“The return of the herdsmen to his farm on Monday, October 6, 2015, to continue their mindless grazing is to us an open declaration of war on the Yoruba people by these invaders. The summit was not unmindful of the fact that the ordeal of Chief Falae is a continuation of the series of attacks these herdsmen have inflicted on our farmers over the years in their contempt for our land and the people therein, which now appears to mean nothing to them than a grazing reserve,” the communiqué read in part.
Meanwhile, former Aviation minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode said in a statement that Yoruba must “be ready to defend our territory and our people when and where the government fails in its sacred duty to do it for us. Self-help and self-defense is not a crime but a necessity. We cannot be anyone’s sacrificial lamb.
“Let this meeting be a warning to those that underestimate our resolve in this matter and that mistake our kindness and patience for weakness. The message is loud and clear: if and when we are pushed to the wall we know exactly what to do. The killings, the rapings, the abductions and the desecration and pillaging of our land and farms by these Fulani herdsmen must stop or else there will be consequences.”
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