Take responsibility for farmer-herder crisis — Fadeyi to Buhari

Increasing spate of kidnappings, killings and maiming of innocent people in the South-West was what gave prominence to Sunday Igboho

President Muhammadu Buhari was on Friday tasked to take responsibility for the increasing farmers-herders’ crisis across the country especially in the South-West part of Nigeria.

Founder of Akin Fadeyi Foundation, Mr. Akin Fadeyi said Nigeria was headed in a direction of total chaos and anarchy which must be urgently arrested.

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While addressing a virtual news conference on “Herdsmen, South-West and Nigeria’s Leadership against recent happenings in the region, the civil rights activist said the insecurity in the region has created the likes of Sunday Adeyemo popularly known as Sunday Igboho.

Igboho had given a seven-day ultimatum for Fulani herders in Igangan, Ibarapa North of Oyo State to vacate Yoruba land and subsequently stormed the settlement to eject them.

He accused the Sarkin Fulani of the State, Alhaji Saliu Abdulkadir of conniving with kidnappers; the allegation which the latter has dismissed.

But Akin Fadeyi while weighing in on the tension over the spate of kidnappings allegedly blamed on herders urged the President to demonstrate the political will to unite the country.

Insecurity in South West brings Igboho to limelight

He said the increasing spate of kidnappings, killings and maiming of innocent people in the South-West was what gave prominence to Sunday Igboho who many people now see as their freedom fighter and agitator in the region.

He said, “This anarchy and seeming oppression of a people by another set of people within the same nation, in a country already besieged by hunger, unequal distribution of wealth and impoverishment, threw up the symbolism of resistance that Sunday Igboho represents.

“Sunday Igboho is a systemic creation of anger against the gruesome murder of Mrs. Olakunri, the daughter of Yoruba leader, Pa Reuben Fasoranti; the gunning down of a first class monarch in Yoruba land, the Olufon of Ifon and of late, Dr. Fatai Aborode, an accomplished Yoruba man who relocated to Nigeria to create employment for his people in Igangan, Ibarapa local government, all from the hands of Fulani Herdsmen.

“But we are also not unaware that all across the federation, many families have lost loved ones to this same domestic terrorism from supposed fellow countrymen. Many families will never recover from the emotional turmoil of untimely death, rape or financial setbacks of those who paid heavy ransom to rescue loved ones.

“Many families will not recover from the agonizing shock of paying ransom to a relative that will never come home, because the Herdsmen took the money and still slaughtered the victim. I speak as someone who has participated in the contribution of ransom before, for two kidnapped victims.”

Fadeyi wondered how kidnapping snowballed into a big industry in the country without the perpetrators being brought to book.

He also lamented what he called the silence of the South-West leaders, saying, “Apart from the Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, and now, Sunday Igboho who is fast becoming a phenomenon of circumstance, many South West leaders have always been reactive than proactive.”

He tasked the South-West leaders to “go to the drawing board and work out a strategy of containment, not against herdsmen alone but also to ensure South west Youths are gainfully and meaningfully employed through creative unlocking of technological opportunities,” saying the Youth in South West are not immune from criminality.