The residents of Igangan in the Ibarapa area of Oyo State on Sunday gave accounts of the misfortune in the hands of the Fulani herdsmen.
The community leaders spoke during a visit of the state government delegation to the town. They disclosed that they had paid a total of ₦50m as ransoms for kidnapping carried out by herdsmen in the community.
The community presented pictures and other evidence of ransoms paid to the herdsmen to the delegation.
They accused the Seriki Fulani of complicity in the negotiation for the paid ransoms.
The delegation included officials of the state and the new Commissioner of Police in the state Command, Mrs. Ngozi Onadeko. On Sunday, they visited Ibarapa where violence erupted on Friday over kidnapping and killings of herdsmen.
Remember that there was report of a popular Yoruba freedom fighter, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, and his followers who stormed the Fulani settlement in the town to eject Seriki Fulani, Salihu Abdukadir, and herdsmen accused of perpetrating crimes ranging from kidnapping, rape and invasion of farmlands with their cattle.
During the visit, the Seriki Fulani of Igangan and his family were evicted from the town and his property were touched.
In a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the State Governor, Mr. Taiwo Adisa, Igangan community leaders on Sunday noted that aside the payment of ₦50m as ransoms, the herders raped 15 women in the town.
However, Fulani leaders, who attended the meeting, asked for forgiveness and that the Fulani were ready for peaceful co-existence with their hosts.
The Punch reported that the Secretary of Igangan Development Advocates, Lawal Akeem, explained that the people were tired of the antics of the Seriki Fulani of Igangan, whom he accused of complicity in different kidnapping cases.
He also said that the community had been forced to pay about ₦50 million in ransom for different cases of kidnapping, alleging that Fulani herders regularly vandalize farms and rape women in the community.
Another youth in the town, Taiwo Adeagbo, said that no fewer than 15 women of the community had been raped in the recent weeks.
A member of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Peter Ojedokun, told the delegation that the peace in Ibarapaland had been stirred by the Fulani herders with the incessant attacks on members of the community, kidnapping and other crimes.
The Caretaker Chairman of Ibarapa North-West Local Council Development Area, Okediji Olusegun, also confirmed the allegations levelled against the Seriki Fulani of Igangan, adding that the Seriki had been fingered in the series of security challenges in the area many times.
Fulani leaders beg for forgiveness, pledges peaceful coexistence
Two Fulani leaders, the Seriki Fulani of Igbo Ora, Alhaji Idris Abubakar, and the Seriki Fulani of Eruwa, Alhaji Sule Mohammed, who were at the meeting beg for forgiveness, assuring the delegation to facilitate peaceful coexistence in Ibarapaland.
At the meeting, those who paid ransoms to the bandits came out to present pictorial evidence to support their claims.
The traditional ruler of Iganagan, the Asigangan of Igangan, Oba Abdulazeez Adeoye, whose cousin was kidnapped, also tendered the evidence of the ransom the he paid to secure the release of his cousin.
The community people also stormed the forum with photographs of those who were killed and those who have suffered attack in the hands of the criminal herdsmen.
The monarch confirmed that the victims and their families came to the meeting with photoghraphs to support their claims.
Oba Adeoye said, “Our people brought photos. I also showed the evidence of ransom paid for one of my children.”
