Buhari Must Caution Rampaging Fulani Herdsmen, Says Fayose

•  Ex-lawmaker wants bribery allegation against police investigated

By Olakiitan Victor in Ado Ekiti

Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has warned that there could be reprisal on Fulani herdsmen in the state if they do not desist from invading communities and attacking the people in the state.

He described the Fulani herdsmen who invaded  Oke Ako in Ikole Local Government Area of the state last Friday, killing two residents of the town and injuring others as “agents of the devil that must be fished out and punished accordingly.”

 According to a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Public Communications, Lere Olayinka, Fayose said: “I have directed the police and other security agencies in the state to fish out the killer herdsmen. I am in constant touch with the security agencies and I hope that the killers will be fished out wherever they are and made to face the full wrath of the law.

 “The people of Oke-Ako should therefore remain calm while the security agents do their job. However, the security agents must be mindful of the fact that the people’s patience has a limit and they must therefore act promptly and decisively.

“I am sounding a note of warning to the Fulani herdsmen and those who can talk to them to also do so now. If they continue with these wanton attacks, killing people and destroying farmlands in the state, I cannot guarantee that there won’t be reprisal.”

 He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to stop paying lips service to the Fulani herdsmen’s menace, saying “as a patron of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), President Buhari ha the capacity to call the herdsmen to order.

Meanwhile, a member of the seventh House of Representatives, Hon. Bamidele Faparusi, has called on the Inspector General of Police (IG), Mr. Solomon Arase, to punish policemen accused of laxity in the last Saturday killing by suspected herdsmen in Oke Ako town.

 Some suspected Fulani herdsmen had invaded the town at about 8p.m. last Saturday, shot sporadically into the air and killed two persons while also wounding over ten others during the violent attack.

Faparusi, in a statement in Ado Ekiti yesterday, urged Arase to investigate the bribery allegation against some policemen in Ikole Divisional Police Station during the attack.