Oluwo backs Fulani in his domain against Igboho, traditional rulers giving ultimatum

The herder-farmer crisis in Iwoland is different from what it is elsewhere across the southwest, and the strategy that makes the difference is nothing sophisticated.

Fulani in the countryside take the security personally, battling and weeding out the criminal elements among them.

According to Oluwo of Iwo HRH Abdulroshid Akanbi, the herders in his domain have been charged to identify the bad eggs among them, and bring them to justice.

“Since that time the leadership of the Fulanis, Seriki, has been keeping up to the responsibility of ensuring culprits are identified, arrested and prosecuted,” he said in a release he personally signed and titled ‘How Fulani Repel, Send Suspected Bandits Out of Iwoland’.

“The Bororo are used to eat farmland and farm crops up at night. And farmers always suspect the Fulanis and take up responsible for such.”

He recalled the latest incident Saturday night when the Bororo herdsmen with their cattle encroached on Iwoland.

“The Seriki Fulani with his men stormed the forest to chase the Bororo whose attitude is to eat crops at night and attack farmers,” he said.

“In Iwoland, Fulanis are our security, not our enemies. The three local governments of Iwoland comprising of Iwo, Ayedire and Ola Oluwa, we enjoy a peaceful coexistence with Fulanis.”

The Oluwo stance on the presence of Fulani in Yorubaland will annoy Yoruba jingoists like Sunday Adeyemo aka Igboho and other secessionists who keep issuing ultimatum to herders to leave the southwest.

But the ethnic frustration is expected considering the atrocities of criminal Fulani herders in the Ibarapa North of Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti, and Ogun.