Farmers/herders clash: Ogun urges residents not to take laws into their hands

Ogun State Government has called on residents not to take laws into their hands following the ongoing clashes that have claimed lives in Yewaland in Ogun West Senatorial District.

The representatives of the government said this on Sunday when they visited the troubled areas for a fact-finding meeting.

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Eight people have been reportedly killed in the area in the last one week by suspected killer herdsmen in the areas and property destroyed.

Governor Dapo Abiodun had sent a delegation comprising top government officials and representatives of security agencies to the affected areas on what was termed “confidence-building mission” after the recent destruction of lives and property as the result of the farmers/herders crisis in the axis.

Speaking at the palace of the Olu of Ilaro, the State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Afolabi Afuape, noted that though the farmers/herders clash was a national problem, the state government was looking at ways of finding a lasting solution to it.

Afuape stressed the need for the people to be vigilant by reporting strange faces and movements to the security officials as government could not afford crisis in any part of the state.

Also speaking, Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Alhaji Abdulwaheed Odusile, appealed to the people not to take law into their hands, but to allow the security agencies and the traditional rulers to handle the situation.

While calling for peaceful co-existence among the indigenes and people from other ethnic groups, Odusile disclosed that an all-inclusive stakeholders meeting had been scheduled to hold soon to find solutions to the problems.

The Olu of Ilaro and paramount ruler of Yewaland, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle, called for immediate setting up of the AMOTEKUN Corps in the sand the involvement of traditional rulers in selecting its operatives who know their different terrains.

The monarch called for the meeting of all traditional rulers to discuss the issue, advocating for the inscription of the owner’s name on each cattle, while maintaining that this would help in identifying the owner in event of destruction of farm by cattle.

Speaking in his Palace, the Eselu of Iselu, Oba Ebenezer Akinyemi, traced the crisis to cattle feeding on farmers produce and called for the creation of a special area for the herders to graze their cattle.

Speaking in an interview, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Security, retired AIG Sola Subair, said a Joint Security Task Force that would be stationed in the affected areas would take off next week, just as the Amotekun Corps would come into being very soon.

Also speaking, the State Commissioner for Police, Edward Ajogun, noted that policemen had been deployed to the affected areas as the government had given security agencies the wherewithal to bring peace to the areas.