The YCE recently raised the alarm that herdsmen have built 1,123 cells inside the thick forests across Yorubaland. Are you saying the Yorubaland is under the siege of herdsmen?
Yes, that is what we are saying. There have been kidnap cases in recent times and a few of the victims that were lucky to escape told us that their abductors were herdsmen speaking Fulfulde and Hausa languages. That really embarrassed us. So, we are under the siege of the herdsmen, and that is what we are saying.
Do you think they are planning to unleash terror on the Yorubaland and overrun the people?
Personally, I do not think they are planning to do that. I do not think they are planning to do anything other than committing crime. In my own view, I think they are just interested in committing crime; kidnapping people for ransom; killing and raping those they can lay their hands upon. And this, I think, is as a result of desertification in the North and the drying up of the Lake Chad. They are moving southward because of the harsh climatic condition as well as the insurgency and banditry in northern states. This threat to security in the South-West is a spill over of criminals from the northern states. These Fulani herdsmen are nomadic and they are always on the move. I don’t think they are planning any major attack on the Yorubaland. Their intention is no other than to continue to kidnap for huge ransoms in order to make a lot of money as well as corrupt the police system here. But I don’t think anybody can contemplate ‘Islamising’ or ‘Fulanising’ any ethnic group in Nigeria in this age. Read more