Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
The Aare Onakakanfo in Council rose from an extraordinary session on Sunday and asked President Muhammadu Buhari to mobilise security agencies to stem the rising spate of insecurity in Yorubaland.
The meeting chaired by the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams, said Yoruba race is “no longer comfortable with the continuing brutalisation and murderous humiliation of our people. Government’s silence is distressing as it is emboldening the criminals. President Buhari must act now.”
The council resolved at the meeting that “the campaign of blood by Fulani herdsmen who have been ravaging our land, kidnapping, killing, maiming and raping our people in recent years has become a serious source of concern for the Yoruba race – a race renowned for their staunch passion for peaceful coexistence, national cohesion and development.
“The threat posed to our existence by these blood-mongering marauders cannot be overlooked as we, as a people, believe that for peace and accord to reign among the multiplicity of people who occupy a common territory, all parties must play a role in ensuring that each and every unit in this country respects each other in all ramifications.
“It is disheartening and most embarrassing that the group, despite several appeals to their consciousness and common sense, has continued to wreak havoc on our land, and forcibly planning to reap where they have not sown.
“They have proven that they have come to steal, destroy, and kill as evident in the unmitigated attacks on communities where their nomadic enterprise takes them. They have been plundering Yorubaland, and we recognise evil when we see it. This is no exception.
“As true spawns of Oduduwa, we are unequivocally forthright about this threat posed by this group which the Federal government has turned a blind eye to by refusing to call a spade by its name, dubbing the Fulani marauders as criminals, bandits, and pillagers.
“Every true blood of the Yoruba race is at the risk of being haunted and slaughtered by this reckless group if we keep sugar-coating the bloody implications of their evil enterprise.
“We are acquainted with the nature of Fulani nomads in the past, and we know as a matter of fact that they were not carrying AK47s. It is because of this naked truth that we ask that these people be labelled as what they are. We are clamouring that the appropriate moniker should be used to tag them. They should be addressed as FULANI BANDITS, for we believe that there is power in names.
“We strongly advise Obas and local chiefs to show more than passing interest in the activities of people in their domains. They must know that they cannot be blameless for their failure to account for and monitor strangers in their areas of jurisdictions, particularly those whose activities run contrary to peaceful coexistence.
“We cannot continue to fold our arms and let these bandits continue to soil our land with the blood of the innocent. Consequently, we hereby ask these Fulani marauders to stop their murderous activities and vacate every inch of Yorubaland they currently ravage.
“Failure to reconcile themselves with these terms may warrant maximum retaliation as the principle dictates that a bully only respects a bully.
“We demand concrete action by the Buhari administration over the activities of these murderous gangs…. They need to understand that their seeming stillness about this plague is a tacit alignment with the forces of evil.”