NSCDC arrests 29 ‘Northern youth farmers’ in Kwara

Kwara State Command of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) on Wednesday arrested 29 youths, who allegedly migrated from northern states to Amayo community in the Ifelodun local government area of the state.

In a statement by the Public Relations Officer of the NSCDC, Mr Olasunkanmi Ayeni, the command said that the suspects claimed to have come to the state from Northern part of the country to engage in farming activities in Kwara State.

Ayeni said that some cutlasses were recovered from the suspects, adding that they were being interrogated by the officers of the command.

“Today, officers of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Kwara state command, picked some persons suspected to have migrated to the state from the northern part of the country.

“They were all picked around Amoyo town in Kwara state. As at the time of writing this report, none of these suspects has any known resident here in Kwara.

“The suspects claimed that they came into the state for farming but their claim is in doubt because this is not a farming season. Some cutlasses were found on them but they claimed that those cutlasses are meant for farming.

“While the investigation is still going on, the state Commandant, Ayinla Iskil Makinde, urged Kwarans to be more vigilant and report any strange movement or persons around them to the security agents”, the statement said.

Meanwhile, Oodua People’s Congress, OPC New Era, has raised the alarm over influx of herdsmen into communities in Kwara state in a suspicious manner, saying that the development should be addressed quickly.

OPC in a statement by the Kwara State Coordinator, Comrade Bayo Fabiyi, in Ilorin on Wednesday said that “our men stationed all over the state gave a report about the suspicious movement of cattle herders into some Yoruba speaking areas of Kwara state and that they have eventually outnumbered the inhabitants”.

He said that some suspected herders chased away from Igangan town and other areas in Oyo State have found their way into the state, adding that he reliably gathered that “Settlements like Esie, Arandun, Omido, Agbamu, Oro Ago, Amori, Oke Ode, Buhari, Igbaja up till Share town, headquarter of Ifelodun local government area have been overwhelmed by the influx of these herders and that most of them are arms-carrying herders, making it dangerous and suspicious”.

He explained that local hunters at Esie and Erin Ile had denied them entry into their domains but they decided to stay in faraway forests away from one boundary into another boundary.

“The people in those areas live daily in fear of being overrun someday by these herders. They can no longer go to the farm, their wives and children are being raped and they increase in numbers by the day.

“Just yesterday, nine trailer load of herdsmen were chased from Esie by local hunters. If they had been allowed to stay, imagine the danger they would pose to the environment. These people lament that before the invasion of Fulanis, they send farm produce to their children living in Lagos and other places outside Kwara but since their sources had been blocked, they now live at the mercy of those children, considering the state of the nation’s economy, making things more difficult.

The OPC Coordinator, who is also the National Treasurer of the Congress said that Kogi and Kwara states must be ready to collaborate to dislodge these herdsmen to avoid a future situation of managing crisis instead of nipping it in the bud.

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