Kemi Olunloyo creates further controversy by declaring that Ipob poses a bigger danger than Fulani herdsmen

CONTROVERSIAL blogger and journalist Kemi Olunloyo has stirred another hornets' nest by declaring that secessionist group the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) poses more of a danger to Nigeria than Fulani cattle herdsmen.

Always in the news for one controversy of the other, Ms Olunloyo, the daughter of former Oyo State governor Dr Omololu Olunloyo, said that the Fulani herdsmen were being targeted and labelled terrorists because Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari is from the ethnic group. In a post she shared on her Instagram page, Ms Olunloyo noted that calling Fulani's violent people was an exaggeration.

Ms Olunloyo wrote: “To say Nigerian Fulanis are a violent group is an exaggeration. The Fulanis have been quietly grazing and herding the beef most of you gulp at your owambe events., so the root of the ongoing problem goes deeper than ethnicity.

"Fulani herdsmen are being targeted as terrorists because of one single reason, the president is from that ethnic tribe. If you don’t like Buhari, then vote him out instead of accusing him of not controlling a whole tribe, can Osinbajo control all the Yoruba people?"

Over recent years, heavily armed Fulani cattle herdsmen have spread terror across Nigeria killing hundreds as they attack local farming communities. In contrast, Ipob has engaged in a non-violent campaign calling for the recreation of the defunct Republic of Biafra that briefly existed between July 1967 and January 1970.

“Stop castigating the Nigerian Fulanis as the Ipob boys were more dangerous looking for mayhem. Many were my errand boys at PHMax and told me Nnamdi Kanu even told them to rape women and cause ethnic mayhem but not all Igbos are Ipob.

“Why are Nigerians not castigating Yoruba leaders over  Badoo shrines and south-south chieftains over Rivers and Cross River cultists and kidnappers. Tribal ignorance is so bad in Nigeria," Ms Olunloyo added.

She pointed out that a federal high court sitting in Abuja recently dismissed an application filed by Ipob, seeking to compel the chief of army staff to produce the group's missing leader Nnamdi Kanu. According to Ms Olunloyo, the trial judge, Justice Binta Nyako, also over-ruled the appeal for lack of merit and proof, that the chief of army staff was indeed the last person seen with Mr Kanu.