The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has cautioned the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Coalition of Northern Groups and Concerned Fulani People of Nigeria against threatening Sunday Igboho for the ultimatum he gave to unscrupulous Fulanis who engage in kidnapping and terror acts.
TheHintsNews report that following the incidents of abductions in Igboho-Igbeti-Kisi axis of Oke ogun in Oyo State, Igboho last weekend went to his hometown, Igboho, where he issued a two-hour ultimatum to kidnappers of a pregnant woman and two others to release their victims or face some dire consequences.
Recall that some notable voices in the northern part Ajayi stressed that they went as far as asking President Bola Tinubu and Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State to rebuke him.
Its factional National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi in a statement issued Thursday said Igboho was not threatening any particular ethnic group “but individuals and groups who are engaged in terror acts in Yorubaland”.
Ajayi added that Igboho also warned Fulanis who engage in such nefarious activities like kidnapping to desist just as he threatened any indigene found to be abetting such a thing.
Afenifere added: “Since he was not violent in his action nor conduct himself in a manner that violates the laws of the land, calling on the authorities to deal with him borders on blackmail and an attempt to call a dog a bad name with a view to having it hanged.”
Ajayi maintained that Yorubaland is one of the areas that people of northern extraction found safe and conducive for them to dwell in – to the extent that many of them have adopted the place as their abode.
He said they have been living in those places with the natives having no problem with them.
Ajayi noted: “But the situation began to change from the moment that unscrupulous Fulani herders began to graze on farmlands of the local people. This was to be compounded by abduction and sacking of communities that began to occur in recent times.”
He added that those who engage in illegal mining had also been fingered as possible sponsors of terrorism as they moved in to dig the ground for mineral resources as soon as they displaced the people living on those lands.
The spokesman stated that since such banditry and terrorrism used to be common in the north and since those who have been apprehended were mostly from the North, especially Fulanis, “that is why many believe that the perpetrators of the evil are from the north.”
Afenifere insisted that Igboho is not directing his anger against the Fulanis as a group “but at those who are behind the dastardly acts of kidnapping people, collecting ransoms and killing their victims”.
To this end, the body then called on northern leaders to look inward by a way of blocking the source from which terrorists recruit members.
Ajayi commended President Bola Tinubu for sending the Executive Bill on the establishment of State Police to the National Assembly just as he lauded the latter for passing the bill expeditiously.
While calling on the States’ Houses of Assembly in the Federation to pass the bill as soon as it gets to them, he also called on state governors to ensure that they create the police service in their respective states as soon as the law was passed.
“They should recruit people without criminal tendencies, train and equip them properly and complement their efforts with needed technology. They should also be properly motivated in terms of remuneration and have life insurance for them.”