Yoruba farmers body Oodua Redemption Alliance warns Fulani herdsmen of impending retaliation

FULANI cattle herdsmen have been warned by a group of farmers in the southwest known as the Oodua Redemption Alliance (Ora) that they will face retaliatory attacks if any person of Yoruba extraction is attacked by them of had their farms destroyed.

Over the last two years since President Buhari assumed office, Fulani herdsmen have stepped up their campaign of violence against farming communities, especially in Nigeria's Middle Belt. These attacks by the heavily-armed herdsmen have sparked fierce criticism, with the government heavily criticised for doing nothing to bring the perpetuators to justice or stop the carnage.

President Buhari has come under a lot of personal criticism being accused of inaction due to the fact that he himself is an ethnic Fulani and breeds cattle, so is reluctant to move against his kinsmen. Yesterday, a group of Yoruba farmers met in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital and declared that further incidents of farm destruction or attack on any person of Yoruba extraction by Fulani herdsmen would be given the appropriate reprisal it deserved.

Insisting that the idea of the federal government to establish cattle colonies or grazing reserves for the herdsmen was a direct ploy to take Nigerians’ lands and give to the Fulanis, Ora implored all herdsmen to move their cattle to the allocated lands reserved for such purpose by both the Kano and Niger state governments. It added that the allocated lands were enough to accommodate herdsmen and their cattle.

While urging other northern state governments to emulate the gestures of the governors Abdullahi Ganduje and Abubakar Bello of Kano and Niger states respectively, Ora warned that the failure to accept these offers would spell trouble. It added that any further incidents of farm destruction or attack on any person of Yoruba extraction in any parts of Nigeria covering Lagos, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Kwara, Edo and Delta states would be given commensurate reprisals.

Ora president, Comrade Victor Taiwo, said: “We are conscious of the character of trail of the Fulanis that they conquer people, occupy their lands and rule over them. This led to their conquest, domination and rule over the entire Hausaland till today and we have the memory of how the Fulanis tricked the Ilorin Yorubas into capturing their land over which they rule till today.

"We implore all Fulani herdsmen to vacate Yoruba land with immediate effect and relocate to Kano and Niger states or their northern states of conquest. We are conscious of the fact that a lot of well to do people in Yorubaland also have their cattle breeding contracted to the Fulani herdsmen, we therefore implore all Yorubas in this category to withdraw their cattle with immediate effect and establish ranches, pens or byres for their cattle breeding."

He added that the resurgence or large scale perpetration of the evil has now gotten to an uncontrollable and unacceptable level that an open confrontation or war has now been provoked between the Yorubas and the Fulanis. According to Comrade Taiwo, It is on record that 95% of the resources sustaining the Nigerian government comes from the southern part of the country, while the cattle business of the Fulani herdsmen is their personal affair, which other people of the country must not be sacrificed for.