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It is debilitating that on February 7, 2021, we were again thrown into another mourning session as a result of the gruesome murder of one of us, Dele Olowoniyi, by killer Fulani herdsmen. This happened around 1:00 a.m at Oha village in Imeko, Imeko-Afon Local Government area of Ogun State.
The unfortunate incident happened when Fulani herdsmen stormed the village at midnight, brandishing guns and machetes, shooting sporadically and destroying properties. Late Dele Olowoniyi, a farmer in his late 30s, was sleeping outside his house to enjoy the midnight breeze having complained of heat to his wife.
Hearing the sporadic gunshots from his sleep, he was too terrified to take decision on time. He was, there and then rounded up by the hoodlums who slaughtered him in a barbaric manner. They thereafter fled to Iwoye, a neighbouring town in the same Imeko/Afon local government area.
Published 15 February 2021
Olutunde Aninkan is the leader of the Coalition of Youth Groups in the Imeko-Afon Local Government Area of Ogun State, where herdsmen have allegedly been on the rampage, including the recent killing of a farmer while asleep. He tells DAUD OLATUNJI the terrible challenges currently facing the people of the area
How will you describe the challenges facing the people of Imeko-Afon in terms of herdsmen and farmers’ crisis?
The challenges can be said to be economically and emotionally devastating although the Yoruba- Fulani clashes have been on for ages and the same can be said of Imeko; I can remember when I was a child when we went to the farm, we got to the farm to see cattle eating our cassava and other crops, but it wasn’t like this, it was not as rampant as we have it now.