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Early in January, a torrent of bad news started emanating from the Ibarapa axis of Oyo State. The stories were about kidnapping, attacks by killer-herdsmen and destructions of farmlands across Ibarapaland.
Incidentally, those attacks were on the heels of the alarm earlier raised by Governor‘Seyi Makinde when he declared in Saki, a key town in Oke Ogun axis of the state in December 2020 that some criminal elements were crossing the international borders into the forests around Oke-Ogun and Ibarapa. He said that the state would not allow criminal elements seize hold of the state and terrorise its people.
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INVESTIGATION: Inside the Igangan abductions, killings that exposed Oyo’s herder crisis
Destruction of farmlands by cattle - and herders - is barely avoidable in Nigeria s outdated open grazing system and criminals are taking advantage. 13 min read
Before Igangan, 177 kilometres from Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, was propelled to national attention in the past weeks, Taiwo Adeagbo, a local farmer-leader, had collected several photographs, depicting bloodied and savagely hacked human bodies. His collection also includes the photograph of a rape victim, lying sick with a machete cut.
The forceful removal of the Fulani population in the town by a group inspired by Sunday “Igboho” Adeyemo, a self-acclaimed Yoruba warlord, had catapulted Igangan into national prominence.
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Olufemi Olaniyi
Pa Okanlawon Ogunleke would still be alive today but for killer herdsmen who allegedly invaded and attacked him on his farm located in Ibarapa area of Oyo State. The octogenarian and the town dwellers were enraged and saddened by the development. The old man was said to have been beaten and macheted by his assailants. He was taken to hospital where he eventually died. Our correspondent gathered that many attacks had happened before then and even after in the area.
In June 2020, Saidu Odugbemi, who is from Tapa, was kidnapped and one of his friends told our correspondent that the family coughed up N7.2m ransom to secure his release. Not done with the family, the kidnappers struck in November again and this time, Saidu’s immediate brother, Shefiu, was also kidnapped. A ransom of N5m was paid with pleadings before he was released by the criminals.
Feb 3, 2021
Representative of Governor Seyi Makinde, who is also his security adviser, CP Fatai Owoseni (retd) (left); Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Ngozi Onadeko (middle) and the Olugbon of Orile Igbon, Oba Francis Alao, during a peace parley to address the violence rocking Igangan and Ibarapa land over rising waves of kidnapping and other crimes, at Igangan Town Hall, on Sunday, Jan 24, 2021.
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LESS than a week after the Seriki Fulani of Igangan, Saliu Abdulkadir and many others left Igangan, in Ibarapa zone of Oyo State, secretary of the Farmers Association in Ibarapaland, Mr Taiwo Adeagbo, has raised the alarm that the Fulani have been returning to the town.
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Not even Sunday Igboho can evict Wakili, says Seriki Fulani’s son
Ayete is safe, says Amotekun Commandant
Kayode Oyero
There is no respite for farmers and residents in Ayete, a town in the Ibarapa area of Oyo State, as they live in fear of Iskilu Wakili, a notorious Fulani warlord who kills and maims with daring effrontery and crude savagery.
The farmers thought the eviction of the Seriki Fulani, Abdulkadri Saliu, from Igangan also in Ibarapaland, was the end to Fulani herdsmen oppression but Wakili only waxed stronger as he mounted no cross-zone on farms with the eviction of Saliu in a bid to send warnings to the people of the town that he cannot be evicted. Wakili has also allegedly shot farmers who trespassed the no cross-zone.