Believe it or not, the Fulani herdsmen who were supposed to be the owners and keepers of herd of domesticated animals have turned to become fearless killers in Nigeria today.
The suspected Fulani killer-herdsmen have invaded a community in Osun State, killing four people from the family of Adepoju, one of the brave vigilante (Man O’ War) security agents in the popular area of Oba Adedeji Housing Estate, Ikirun, Osun State, leaving many wounded and properties destroyed.
An eyewitness in Ikirun town, who confirmed the incident to journalists, claimed that the assailants were the gunmen who had attacked some other communities in the neighboring villages.
The marauding killer-herdsmen were said to have a target known as Bankole Adepoju, one of the vigilante (Man O’ War) members who has been a stumbling block for them to take over the community in the past. But they unfortunately killed his family members instead because he had escape before they attacked the housing estate where he resides in the town.
In the well orchestrated attack on the community, we gathered that the herdsmen opened fire at a marked apartment in Oba Adedeji Housing Estate in Ikirun and murdered Yemi Adepoju his brother and Kemi Adepoju the youngest sister in cold blood and they didn’t even spared the lives of his two aunts. It was a gory incident!
Bankole Adepoju became their target because he was one of the vigilante security agents (Man O’ War) in the town, agitating for the herdsmen to be banished from the community because of the incessant communal fight caused by the open gracing of cows and the destruction of farms, which has resulted in many confrontations between the herdsmen and local farmers.
Our findings revealed that Bankole Adepoju and other members of the community vigilante (Man O’ War) groups have taken cover and ran away for their dear lives from the town because the herdsmen are bent on taking their lives no matter what it will take to achieve their dastard act of killing innocent people in the country.
The causes of such conflicts in the past were destruction of crops, contamination of streams by cattle, zero grazing of land, disregard for local traditional authorities, female and youth harassment, defecation of cattle on the community roads, farm product theft and many more.
More so, the social effect of the menace of the brutal Fulani killer-herdsmen are loss of human lives, sexual harassment, acquiring of illegal weapons and arms and many more are what the Ikirun Community security conscious youth are trying to put a stop to that led to the gruesome attacks and killings in the community recently.
The establishment of the vigilante group in the community is to put an end to the rising wave of criminal activities by the Fulani herdsmen by complementing the efforts of the security agencies.
The people of the community in Ikirun town, have urged the state government and President Muhammadu Buhari to do everything possible to protect the citizenry and consolidate efforts on proffering solution to the security crisis that have bedeviled the nation. And, Nigerians generally lamented that the presidency is not taking proactive steps to check the excesses of Fulani Killer-herdsmen across the country.
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