Ogun youths issue seven-day quit notice to herders

A group of youths in Yewa north local government area of Ogun state has given herders a seven-day ultimatum to leave the area.

The youths, under the umbrella of Yewa North Patriotic Forum (YNPF), accused the herders of being responsible for the killing of five residents in Owode-Ketu and Egua communities on Thursday.

In a statement on Friday, in Abeokuta, the state capital, Sanni Omobolaji, president of the group, said members of the communities are ready to take their destinies into the hands, if the herders refuse to leave the area.

“As responsible young people in Yewa North, we have tried to ensure that our coexistence works, even when we are the legitimate owners of Yewa land. But today’s gruesome killing of five of our people has shown that killer Fulani herdsmen can only live in their own world,” Omobolaji said.

“On this note, we call on the state government to immediately deploy a coalition of security agencies to seal off borders with our neighbouring country, either through the bushes or through designated routes.

“We also use this medium to give a seven-day ultimatum within which all killer herdsmen must vacate our local government or face the full anger of grieving people.

“If this ultimatum is taken with levity, we shall stop at nothing in ensuring that all unknown Fulanis are flushed out of our local government at the expiration of the seven-day ultimatum.

“We are fully ready to take our destiny in our own hands and not wait till the Fulanis successfully wipe off all our promising children and caring parents.

“Now is the best time to dissolve the marriage of inconvenience between our people in Yewa North Local Government and the killer Fulani herdsmen as we can not condone these criminals beyond seven days in our domain.”

In January, Sunday Adeyemo, a youth leader better known as Sunday Igboho, led some youths in Ibarapa local government area of Oyo state to Salihu Abdukadir, Seriki Fulani, leader of the Fulani group, to register displeasure over the killings and abductions in the area.

Blaming the attacks and kidnappings in the area on herders, Igboho gave them a seven-day ultimatum to vacate Oyo.

Igboho later visited the Yewa area of Ogun state to help the communities to flush out killer herdsmen.