Killer herdsmen: People may resort to self-help, monarch cries out

Following incessant attacks on farmers and villagers by killer Fulani herdsmen, the Olu of Ilaro and Paramount Ruler of Yewaland, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle, has said the people may resort to self-help to defend themselves if the government fails to protect them.

The ruler of Yewaland stated this after herdsmen had, on Friday night, invaded Igbooro, Oja-Odan in Yewa North Local Government Area of the state, leaving three dead and two villagers injured.

The marauding herdsmen had reportedly invaded the village close to Eggua in Oja-Odan around 11 pm, shooting sporadically and setting ablaze three houses and storehouses in the village.

In the latest killing, a mother and her child were among the three persons hacked to death in their huts, while two persons were said to be in critical condition after they were shot by the herdsmen.

The attack came barely 24 hours after five persons were killed in Owode Ketu.

The monarch condemned the killings in a statement on Saturday titled, ‘Stopping the time bomb before it is too late,’ addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari, and Governor Dapo Abiodun.

The monarch described the activities of the herdsmen as criminal and dangerous.

He said they had wreaked havoc on many Yewaland communities, including Egua, Oja-Odan, Igan-Alade, Gbokoto, Ijoun, Owode-ketu, Ebute, Igbooro, and Imeko-Afon with reports of plans to attack major towns in the kingdom.

“In this situation, it is not out of place that people may resort to self-help to defend themselves if the government fails to guarantee their safety as citizens of Nigeria in the face of renewed insurgency by these criminals terrorizing our people with arms and dangerous weapons.”

Oba Olugbenle pleaded with the people to cooperate with the state government on various security measures already mapped out to curb the activities of the attackers, saying, “A stitch in time saves nine.”

The Peoples Democratic Party in the Ogun in a statement by the Publicity Secretary, Bankole Akinloye, berated the state governor, Dapo Abiodun for allegedly watching the gruesome killings of residents of the state by Fulani herdsmen.

“For us, it is a growing source of worry to see how, owing to the deafening silence and inaction of the ruling APC government, life has returned to the Hobbesian’s State Of Nature where life was brutish, nasty and short. In many parts of Ketu land and indeed Yewa North axis, parents now prevent their wards from going to schools because of fear of Fulani herdsmen.”

According to the PDP, though all the conventional security operatives have proved incapable of arresting the ugly monster, the party is not its idea to canvass or promote “self-help.”