IN a bid to curb the incessant attacks of herdsmen on the farmers in the South-West, Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, said it had set up a panel to monitor the activities of herdsmen in the region.

This was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting of the association held at the residence of Reuben Fasoranti, an elder statesman and leader of the group, in Akure, the Ondo State capital on Tuesday, March 28.

The communiqué was read to journalists by Yinka Odumakin, its publicity secretary, said that the group condemned the menace of the herdsmen in the South-West and some other parts of the country.

Nevertheless, it said the report of the panel would be shown to the international communities about the havoc the herdsmen were causing in the South-Western part of the country.

The communiqué saiad in part: “The herdsmen cannot continue to harass us, we are agrarian communities in the South-West, many of our people cannot farm again because the herdsmen have taken over their farmlands , this cannot continue and that must stop immediately.

“To show our seriousness on this matter, we have empowered a panel to go round all the communities in the South-West where the herdsmen have been carrying out all kinds of havoc, to do an on-the-spot assessment and compile a documentary and report which we will not hesitate to tell the international communities to look at case if the Nigeria government continues to prove that it is helpless or unwilling to tame the criminal activities of these Fulani herdsmen.”

On the recent communal clash between the Yoruba and Hausa communities in Ile Ife, Osun State, the Afenifere said the police should desist from adding tribal coloration to the incident, reiterating that it was unfair for the police to be one-sided in the arrest of suspects in the communal clash.

—  Mar 28, 2017 @ 18:50 GMT

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