Panic as Ogun monarch alleges arms build-up
The Onimeko of Imeko, Oba Benjamin Olanite, has raised the alarm that arms and ammunitions are being imported into Ogun State.
The monarch, who spoke during a stakeholders’ meeting in Abeokuta on Tuesday, which was attended by some northern governors, said the whole of Yewaland had been infiltrated with arms and ammunition.
He said the development had exposed people living in the area to serious attacks by armed herdsmen.
He lamented that farmers in the area had suffered huge losses, which might not be recoverable on time except they got help from the government.
He also observed that the forest reserve in Imeko had become habitation for criminals and urged the government to put the 600-square-metre reserve into use to avoid further abuse.
Oba Olanite said, “There are lots of things happenings in the Yewa axis. We have been living with some groups of Fulani in peace.
“There is now a lot of infiltration of some people we don’t understand their language. They have been coming with a lot of arms ammunition. Recently, they slaughtered a man and when we called his phone number, the people who talked to us were Fulani; they said the owner of the phone had gone to Al-Qiyama (heaven).
“A lot of ammunition has been brought into Imeko. In Yewaland, we are living in fear. We cannot sleep with our two eyes closed. These people have bombarded Yewaland with machine guns.”
In his remarks, Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, said the essence of the stakeholders’ meeting was to find lasting solutions to the recent happenings concerning the coexistence of farmers and herders in the state.
He lamented that the issue had become worrisome that people, who had co-existed peacefully for years, were suddenly at each others’ throat on account of sources of livelihood.
According to him, from time immemorial, herders and farmers have peacefully cohabited and have continued to find joint solutions to their mutual challenges, while occasional frictions and misunderstandings are sorted out amicably.
Kano State Governor, Abdullah Ganduje, asked the Economic Community of West African States to see the clashes between herders and farmers as its problem.
Ganduje, who explained the various types of Fulani in the country and beyond, said the Fulani were everywhere in the world.
The Kano governor, who warned against scratching the issues on the surface, stated that the lasting solution was for ECOWAS to either register the Fulani coming into Nigeria or prevent them from entering.
Other governors in attendance at the meeting were Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State; Chairman, Northern Governors’ Forum and Niger State Governor, Abubakar Bello; Abubakar Bagudu (Kebbi); and Bello Matawalle (Zamfara).
The governors spoke one after the other and suggested the way out of the incessant clashes between farmers and herders in the state.
Ganduje added that the movement of herders and their animals by trekking from the northern part of the country to the southern part must be stopped. Vanguard
