Ogun youths issue seven-day quit notice to herders

Daud Olatunji, Abeokuta

Youths under the auspices of Yewa North Patriotic Forum have issued a seven-day ultimatum to killer herdsmen in Yewa North Local Government Area of Ogun State.

The youths gave the ultimatum on Friday, 24 hours after suspected Fulani herdsmen gruesomely killed five persons in Owode-Ketu, Egua in the council area.

The group gave this ultimatum in a press statement tagged, ‘YNPF to killer Fulani herdsmen: We can’t condone you beyond seven days,’ and made available to The PUNCH on Friday, in Abeokuta, the state capital.

The statement was issued by President of the group, Sanni Omobolaji.

He said villagers have been living in fear and pains of the incessant killings which he said could only be traced to the herders mostly.

He said the villagers refused to fight back, hoping that a quick solution will be gotten after complaints to the government.

Some killer herdsmen had invaded Owode Ketu community and Egua on Thursday around 5.00am and killed about five persons whose dead bodies were reportedly found in nearby bushes and in the Egua River.

The statement said, “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.

“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.”