The Pan-Yoruba Socio-political organization, Afenifere has ordered killer Fulani herdsmen to leave Southwest now or face serious confrontation.
The organization stated that about 30,000 people had been killed due to activities of killer herdsmen between 2015 and 2019.
At a news conference on Wednesday in Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, one of the leaders of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo said the decision was taken following the killing of the daughter of Afenifere’s leader, Reuben Fasoranti, Olufunke Olakunrin by suspected herdsmen.
Adebanjo warned the National Assembly “not to amend the Land Use Act with the intent to change the predominance of land allocation in states to the federal government to allow RUGA’s implementation. We demand their immediate exit from Yoruba land. If they refused to leave in a reasonable time, we will not stop our people from confronting them.
“Yoruba land has now become the epicenter of the terror of these Fulani marauders and our people are fed up with the shedding of innocent blood that is quite an anathema to our respect for human life which would see us remembering those who died peacefully 50 years down the line.”
He expressed disappointment with the refusal of the federal government to allow elected governors have state police, while on the other hand permitting the setting up Fulani bandit -vigilantes on Yoruba soil in addition to the Fulani militias terrorizing the same land.
“We are miffed that those who will not allow our elected governors have police are now setting up Fulani bandit -vigilantes on our soil in addition to the Fulani militias terrorizing our land,” he said.
He, therefore, lamented that about 30,000 people “have been killed by the Fulani herdsmen/militia across the country between 2015 and 2019. Apart from not bringing them to book, the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has taken so many steps which betray the encouragement being given to these troublers of Nigeria.”
“We cannot continue to live under these conditions. The blood of our people will no longer be used to water the tree of a dysfunctional unitary order,” he added.
Adebanjo called for an immediate timeline for a return to a federalist Nigeria that would allow for autonomy for each state to run its internal affairs, saying that the activities of Fulani herdsmen/bandits/kidnappers and other miscreants would have been effectively dealt with if the governors as Chief Security officers of their states had control of the security agencies.
He said with the current proposed security budget for 2019 is N1.76 trillion, a devolved entity would have enabled better utilization of part of that expenditure; particularly in the over N300b for policing which was further subsidized by the state governments’ additional allocations and over N600b intended for internal affairs.
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