Akeredolu: Kidnappers in Ondo forest speak Fulfulde

Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), on Monday, said kidnappers in Ondo forest reserves speak Fulfulde.

The governor spoke while featuring on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme monitored by The PUNCH.

According to UNESCO Thesaurus, Fulfulde is the language of the Fulbe people also known as Peul or Fulani, who are found throughout West Africa.

There has been unrest in the South-West region of late over the activities of Fulani herders who have been accused of committing sundry crimes including killing, kidnapping, rape and farm destruction. In a bid to sanitise the forest, Akeredolu had ordered herdsmen to vacate the Ondo State forest reserves or be registered with the ministry of agriculture in the state.

The development had sparked controversy with the Presidency saying the governor lacked the right to order the herders to vacate the forest reserves.

But Akeredolu has since insisted that the herders must obey the constituted authority in the state or leave his domain.

Speaking on Monday, he said, “What we had to address in Ondo State is essentially our discovery that some criminal elements were using our forest reserves to perpetrate crimes and we said, look, we are not going to stay by and just watch this happen.

“People are kidnapped, they are not kidnapped and taken into a house; most of those who were kidnapped have come back and we have debriefed them, we have been briefed by all of them and we know essentially the group of people involved and that they were taken into our forest reserves.

“Our farmers who operate there are licensed to be there, so anybody who wants to go there must be licensed to be there. If you are not licensed to be there to do a legitimate economic venture, then you are a criminal element, we are going to ask you to leave the place. Punch