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Oyo: Oke Ogun community begs for help as herdsmen run rampage
Olusesan Laoye
President Bola Tinubu and the governor of Oyo State, Engineer Seyi Makinde have been urged to come up with effective measures to guarantee the safety of lives and properties of the people of Oke Ogun, in the Oyo North Senatorial District in view of the current insecurity which has resurfaced in the area.
The call was made by the Crusaders, an organisation championing the creation of Oke Ogun State and the development of the area.
The organisation noted that the Oke Ogun area of Oyo state is no longer safe, as the people now live in fear.
The people of the area, according to the President of the Crusaders, Pastor Oladimeji Adewole, who spoke to news men in Ibadan, along with the Public Relation Officer of the Organisation, Dr. Olayode, pointed out that the security architecture of Oke Ogun deserves reinforcements, due to the present alarming rate which innocent people are being attacked.
Pastor Oladimeji submitted that President Tinubu and governor Makinde must move fast to end the scourge of terrorism by Fulani herdsmen in the region to avoid the breakdown of law and order.
He argued that if the current trend is not curtailed by both the Federal and the State government, the people would not fold their arms and close their eyes to allow themselves being killed by “these callous and unrepentant elements.
Adewole during his speech, noted with dismay the level of devastation the people of Iwere Ile suffered after not less than nine people were killed by Fulani herdsmen in the community.
He said it was a fit of terrorism which must be addressed appropriately when herdsmen might have taken the law into their hands and aiming to protect their herds by all costs, at the expense of the business conditions of other citizens.
He said, “We are disturbed that our people in Oke-Ogun can no longer exercise their rights to their profession of farming for the fear of killer Fulani herders. How can we build a strong nation where farmers are being killed with impunity?” he wondered.
He recalled that a week ago, a total of nine indigenes of Iwere-Ile township in Iwajowa local government area of Oyo State, who were mainly farmers including a member of the Amotekun officer on duty, were killed on their farm in an unprovoked attack.
According to Adewole, the people of Oke-Ogun “are resilient and always reasonable but they cannot be taken for granted in terms of security of lives and property.”
He further pointed out, “Our people in Oke-Ogun are resilient and always reasonable but they cannot be taken for granted in terms of security of lives and property. We are known for prompt rebounds from adversity but we are equally adept in protecting our territory against offensives.”
The minister of God therefore called on the president and the governor, to keep surveillance of Oke-Ogun, noting that since the face-off between the people of Ibarapa and some herdsmen in Oyo state, Fulani have shifted their aggressions against the Oke-Ogun region of Oyo State, to their present location where their attacks are now seriously being felt.
Adewole, however, noted that his group, the Crusader, would not be silent to undue injustice calculated to devastate Oke-Ogun as a community inasmuch the people remain ever civic and law-abiding.
It will be recalled that this similar incidents against the people of oke Ogun and Ibarapa areas of Oyo State, made the now exiled Sunday Igboho to insist that the Fulani must vacate the area.
His action became a controversy, following, which his house was raised by the security operatives, who subsequently declared him wanted.
Igboho is now in Germany where he is seeking political asylum, after his detention in the Republic of Benin.
