Anxiety as Fulani activist threatens to banish Yoruba from north
- Umar Labdo says Yoruba people living in the north may be banished should the attack on Fulani herders continue in the southwest
- According to the Fulani activist, herdsmen have the right to reside in any part of the country in line with the constitution
- Labdo, a university don, also slammed Governor Rotimi Akeredolu and Sunday Igboho for leading an onslaught against the Fulani herders
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Professor Umar Labdo, a university don and Fulani activist has condemned the quit notice issued to Fulani herders in Ondo and some part of southwest over alleged complicity in kidnapping and other sundry crime.
Speaking with Daily Sun on Sunday, January 31, Labdo said the evacuation notice to herdsmen belies the position of the constitution which grants Nigerians freedom and rights to reside in any part of the country irrespective of tribes and faiths.
The Fulani activist, who is a lecturer at Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano, said if the southwest insists on expulsion of the herders out of the region, all the Yoruba people residing in the north will face the same faith.
Source: UGC
Fulani herders have been accused of being responsible for the rise in sundry crimes including kidnapping, maiming and killing of farmers in the southwest.
Governor Rotimi Akeredolu had issued a two-week quit notice to the herders to leave the Ondo state forests, arguing the criminals among the herders are using the reserves as hideouts for their heinous activities.
On Friday, January 22, some Yoruba youths led by a popular activist Sunday Igboho stormed Igangan town in Ibarapa region of Oyo state to chase the Fulani heders out of the community after the expiration of the quit notice earlier issued.
Efforts have since been put in place to resolves the problem with a view to curb the mounting ethnic tension in the southwest region.
Speaking in an interview, Labdo attacked both Sunday Igboho and Governor Akeredolu, saying their actions can lead to counter-attack on Yoruba people living where "the arms of law cannot reach."
"This Governor Akeredolu, he is a Yoruba man, he is expelling my people, the Fulani, from his own state. Now, we have Yoruba in Fulani states.
"We have Yoruba in Kano, we have them in Adamawa and we have them in cities and very small villages, they are living in peace. You find them where the arms of the law cannot reach, where there is no presence of police at all.
"So people, in retaliation, can do whatever they want to do to them. Just like their brothers are doing to us in the bush.So you are saying, you hit me and I’ll hit back?"
Why we can't leave southwest - Miyetti Allah
Meanwhile, Alhaji Kirowa Ardo Zuru, president of Miyetti Allah in the southwest, has called for cooperation and harmony between the locals and the cattle rearers in the region.
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Speaking during a meeting between the leaders of the group and the southwest governors which was held in Akure, Ondo state's capital on Monday, January 25, Zuru said there is an age-long relationship between the southwest and the Fulani herders.
He noted that it is in the southwest that the herders are making huge profits out of their cattle-rearing business because Yoruba people enjoy partying and ceremonies.
Source: Legit.ng
