By Olatunbosun Oladimeji
Events this past week across the South-West again pointed to the urgency for institutionalisation of a stronger security architecture to rein in crimes and criminals without regard to ethnic or religious backgrounds of the perpetrators of all hues if we don’t want the country to go up in flames as we pander to our emotional or social-cultural attachments.
The week began with the needless, wrong-footed controversies over otherwise straightforward instruction by the Governor of Ondo State, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, to Fulani herdsmen to vacate the state’s forest reserves within seven days or to register with the local rulers within their communities if they want to continue to do business in the state.
However, before the end of the week, developments in Oyo State, especially the revolt of the people of Ibarapa against the herdsmen believed to have been complicit in the recent killings and kidnappings by Fulani gangs in the area have nearly pushed the Ondo case off media headlines. Even more vexatious was a newspaper report of the ordeal of some communities in Ogun State who out of frustration of perennial destruction of their farmlands and their livelihoods by cows, had asked the Fulani herdsmen grazing in their area to look for pastures for their animals elsewhere.
Consequently, on the return of the herdsmen, they were accompanied by soldiers who proceeded to brutalise the villages for daring to complain about the unsavoury activities of the people being forced on their communities by the soldiers.
Yet, we must return to Ondo State for a deeper understanding of the insecurity now posed to the people of the South-West region by this rampaging Fulani gang. Indeed, the problems of the criminals masquerading as herdsmen became an issue of concern in the South-West when Chief Olu Falae, a former presidential candidate and Secretary of the Federal Government, was kidnapped from his farm in Ilu Abo, a few kilometres outside Akure, the state capital in September 2015. The uproar generated by the abduction did not stop the kidnappers from demanding N100 million as ransom for his release. The elder statesman was eventually released on the September 24, after the payment of N5m ransom.
Criminal gangs made up of Fulani youths were also fingered in the July 2019 fatal shooting of Mrs Funke Olakunrin, a daughter of Afenifere leader, Chief Reuben Fasoranti and the killing of a first class traditional ruler, Oba Israel Adeusi, the Olufon of Ifon in an ambush at Elegbeka, a few kilometres to his town last November. The same day, Mrs Olubunmi Ale, wife of the Chief of Staff to Governor of Ondo State, Chief Gbenga Ale, was kidnapped at Owena, on the Ondo-Akure Highway. On January 16, 2021, Dr. Amos Arijesuyo, the deputy registrar of Federal University of Technology Akure, was also killed along Ilesa-Akure highway by bandits when he was returning from Ibadan to Ondo State.
Of course, there have been scores of unreported incidents of kidnappings, sometimes with the victims ending up dead as a result of the inability to meet up with ransoms of their abductors over the years.
This writer was also a victim alongside two others on March 22, 2020, while journeying along Ore-Omotoso-Lagos Expressway. We spent three days as captives in hardship and threat. I can testify that these Fulani criminal gangs have mastered the geography of our forests in Ondo State. These are young individuals who exhibit inhumane attributes as criminals -they smoke, drug, beat up men ceaselessly day and night to force their demands met up, with many who cannot endure their atrocities ending up dead in their custody. I hope to do an exclusive on my experience when psychologically fit.
Aside from the kidnappings by the Fulani gangs, the herdsmen have also been indicted in the destruction of the livelihood of our farmers through unrestricted grazing of animals that eat up farm produce. Presently, the famous up growing cocoa farm settlement in Ujugbere is partially abandoned because of bad experiences suffered by three of the farmers, led by Prince Adebo Ogunoye, who were kidnapped and released after ransom was paid in August last year. During last week’s protest in Akure, a farmer recalled how his wife died two days after she was raped in her farm by Fulani herders recently.
Many farmers are already abandoning their farms either out of fear of being kidnapped or realisation that their efforts will come to naught at the end of the day with cows eating up the crops. Unfortunately, the police have not been able to respond to the security challenges posed by these Fulani gangs due to their well-known limitations in terms of personnel and resources.
As the security officer of his state, Akeredolu cannot afford to stay idle, watching while criminals are having a field day kidnapping, maiming and killing his people. Hence, the governor championed the establishment of the vigilante network, Amotekun as the Chairman of the South-West Governors’ Forum, even standing his ground to defend the initiative against forces that seemed determined to stop its realisation.
Now, Amotekun is working in Ondo and most of the other states of the South-West. So far, the Amotekun corps have helped in the rescue of kidnapped victims and even helped to recover cows stolen from herders carrying out their legitimate business in Ondo State.
The recent order by Akeredolu that herdsmen should vacate all government forest reserves in the state within seven days during an interactive meeting in Akure with the leadership of the Hausa/Fulani and Ebira communities was also a step in this direction. The governor had also banned night grazing in the state and the movement of cattle within cities and highways. This was in addition to outlawing grazing of cattle by children.
In issuing the directives, the governor had noted that criminal elements had turned forest reserves in the state and across the South-West into hideouts for keeping victims of kidnapping, negotiating for ransom and carrying out other deadly activities.