Tell herdsmen to vacate our land, Ekiti community begs govt

The People of Orin-Ekiti, Ido/Osi local government area of Ekiti state have called on the state government to prevail on fulani herdsmen to vacate their land in the interest of peace in the community.

It will be recalled that the community had witnessed series of attacks allegedly committed by the Fulani herdsmen leading to loss of lives and destruction of farmlands and hoisting of flags.

Conveying the town’s resolution to the government at a parley organized for stakeholders towards ending the impasse on Friday in Ado-Ekiti, Mr Kayode Omotosho insisted that Fulani herders were allegedly responsible for killings, hoisting of the flags and destruction of farms worth over N50 million in the town.

According to him, “Two years ago, they hoisted one white flag with a red line and 15 days after, a pregnant Tiv woman and our kinsman, Mr Emmanuel Ilori were killed last year and these scenarios may not allow us to allow Fulani herders to live with us.

“These people are giving us a lot of discomforts. We appeal to Ekiti government to ask them to leave. We don’t want Fulani on our land anymore. We are peaceful people. We don’t want Orin Ekiti to be known for negative news. Let them(Herdsmen) leave our land for us, that is what we want.”

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Speaking at the forum, the leader of the Fulani herders in Ido/Osi council area, Alhaji Adamu Abashe denied that his members were behind the flag in the community in December last year with a move to annex a portion of land belonging to the town for cattle rearing.

Abashe said: “We didn’t know how the flags got there. We were not responsible. We have lived in Orin Ekiti for over 30 years. We have been living together peacefully. When I was kidnapped, I did not say Orin people were responsible, because we are brothers. It was after my kidnap that the kidnappers came to kill a Tiv woman in that farmstead.

“When they kidnapped my labourer, I paid N300,000 as ransom and I didn’t say Orin people were behind it. I was not happy with the killings and destruction in Orin. So, we are not planning evil for these people that had lived peacefully with us.”

Abashe added that those perpetrating troubles in the area were herders from other states and not those that are resident in the area.

Responding, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Security Matters, Brig. Gen. Ebenezer Ogundana, advised the feuding parties to tolerate each other in the interest of peace in the state.

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He said the forum was put together for the parties to express their grievances in a bid to avert violence that would further lead to more loss of lives and property.

“The essence of this discussion is how we can live together peacefully. We also want to fashion out how all the herders coming into Ekiti are identified and accepted. We have lived together for so many years and we will continue to live together as a family.

” If anybody commits a crime, we should be able to identify him. Some persons had been killing, destroying farms and hoisted flags at Orin Ekiti and wrote keep off on it. We want to investigate who was behind that. The government won’t fold its arms and allow these to continue.

“We want to work out some conditions to control cattle -farmers’ relations so that we can live in peace. Continue to tolerate yourselves until a truce is reached on this issue. Every Nigerian can live anywhere, but there are owners of the land and settlers and the two must learn how to respect one another,” Ogundana said.