Agbekoya Asks FG to Call Herdsmen to Order

The Agbekoya Farmers Revolutionary Group (AFRG) in the country has called on the federal government to caution and call the Fulani herdsman to order over the incessant killing of the innocent farmers across the country which are on the increase and unsettling.

Baale of Agbekoya Farmers Revolutionary Group, Chief Olalere Ayalu made the call in Lagos against the backdrop of attacking farmers by Fulani herdsman in the country especially in Lagun, Iyana Offa, Offa, Alalagba, Lapala and their surrounding Communities in Lagelu Local Council Area of Ibadan, Oyo State.

Baale Ayalu alleged that a group of Fulani armed men attacked these communities at night, injured a guard and carted away valuables worth millions of Naira, adding that those Fulani herdsmen had no respect for human life as they invade their communities and kill their farmers unchallenged.

“In search for grazing pastures according to them, they have left their footprint in practically every host community in the country that has had the misfortune of having them as visitor. They have rendered some villages in Oke-Ogun, agatu in Benue State “a gaping wound,” Baale Ayalu said.

He then warned the federal government not to let the event of 1968 repeat itself when the government of the old Western Region under Governor Adeyinka Adebayo increased the tax levy and forced their wives to pay taxes, which culminated into fighting between the government and Agbekoyas.

He said the Yoruba Elders who were then predominant farmers kicked against the new tax levy then, saying that there was no basis for it because cocoa plantations, their major business was not yielding expected income.

Baale Ayalu pleaded with the federal government-led by President Muhammadu Buhari to expedite action on the killing of innocent farmers by the Fulani herdsman, saying that they need to live together in peace and harmony.

In a related development, the National Secretary, Agbekoya Farmers Revolutionary Group, Mr. Sola Ariyibi, urged the President Muhammadu Buhari to find a lasting solution the unlawful killing of farmers by Fulani herdsman, adding that the quick intervention of presidency would minimise their menace across the country.

He said that the indiscriminate killing of innocent farmers has been getting out of hands as the farmers had no interest in farming again for the fear of being killed by the Fulani herdsmen who carry sophisticated weapons in their farms lands.

Ariyibi said it is not that their farmers and the Agbekoyas could not challenge their menace in Yoruba land, but for the peace to reign, that was the reasons it was imperative for President Muhammadu Buhari to deploy soldiers in those grey areas to curb the menace of the Fulani herdsmen across the country.

“The president needs to be courageous, we know him as a man of his word and integrity, he will not be swayed away by myopic, parochial, religious and inglorious tendencies, and we want him to protect his integrity. The Fulani herdsmen have done a lot of havoc in Nigeria” Ariyibi said.
While commemorating with the family members of those being recently attacks in the country, Ariyibi said the Agbekoya would no longer condone unlawful killing of their farmers particularly in the South-west region, warning that if the Fulani herdsmen go beyond their boundary, they would teach them a lesson of their life.

He said that as it was in the days of their fore fathers, so it is today and it would continue to be, admonishing Fulani herdsmen to stop killing farmers in order to avoid reprisal attack from Agbekoya Farmers Revolutionary Group (AFRG) in the Country.