REJOINDER TO GOVERNOR NASIR EL-RUFAI ON EVICTION OF NOTORIOUS CRIMINALS IN BELEAGUERED YORUBA FARMING COMMUNITIES
By Prof. Femi Olufunmilade
The Yoruba are the most hospitable and tolerant ethnic group in Nigeria, in whose towns and villages you find people of diverse ethnicities, gifted land and accorded all rights and privileges of indigenes to settle, do business, and live in peace.
For this traditionally peaceful and friendly people to start fishing out specific individuals for eviction from their communities, is borne of the dangers such people pose. It’s not the result of ethnic profiling.
Seriki Fulani in Igangan was evicted for being the kingpin of kidnappers in the area. Specific victims of his criminality like Dr. Fatai Aborode have been mentioned. Has he been interrogated and investigated by appropriate security agencies?
Only criminals operating with impunity because of their high connections are being shown the way out in beleaguered communities. And there is a consensus in Yorubaland for the victims to evict criminals in their communities, whoever they are, where the Federal Government-controlled law enforcement agencies abdicate their duties for unclear reasons.
This has to be so because the siege by criminals masquerading as herdsmen is now akin to an organised guerrilla warfare aimed at pushing our rural dwellers, who are predominantly farmers, into the cities to form IDP camps as is the case across the north presently.
Can you tell me one thing the Federal Government has done to check this menace? Meanwhile, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano state has provided land to settle the nomadic herdsmen. I wonder if he has gotten any help from the Federal Government.
Our royal fathers have met with President Buhari several times on this matter. Ditto our governors, albeit in a lacklustre manner. Where is the positive outcome?
This is not a threat. For as long as the illegally armed herdsmen are allowed to roam freely and cause deaths and destruction and all manner of avoidable human suffering, expect more evictions, not only in Yorubaland but across all besieged communities in Nigeria.
People are pushed to the wall and they either defend themselves or continue to die in silence.
