YORUBA FARMERS RELEASE A STATEMENT ON THE HERDSMEN KILLINGS.
BEING THE RESOLUTIONS ARRIVED AT FROM THE EMERGENCY YORUBA FARMERS SUMMIT HELD ON THURSDAY 15TH FEBRUARY, 2018 AT THE HOUSE OF CHIEFS, PARLIAMENT BUILDING, SECRETARIAT, IBADAN UNDER THE AUSPICES OF OODUA REDEMPTION ALLIANCE.
Theme: JUST BEFORE THE FULANIS FINISH US!
1. That we are conscious of the character trait of the Fulanis that they conquer people, occupy their lands and rule over the land.
2. That this led to their conquest, domination and rule over the entire Hausa land till today.
3. That we have the memory, to the external shame of us Yorubas anyway, how the Fulanis tricked the Ilorin Yorubas into capturing their land over which they rule till today.
4. That we are conscious of their further incursion efforts into the entire Yoruba land which led to the Osogbo war of 1840 between the Fulanis and the Ibadan warlords who decisively routed them thus stopping their further incursion.
5. That we are aware of their ceaseless plots and strategy to still capture Yoruba land in fulfilment of the will of their forebear Uthman Dan Fodio whose design was that the conquest of the Yorubas would only stop at the ocean in Lagos where their blood-stained swords would be washed.
6. That we are conscious of the highest degree of harms the Fulani herdsmen have done to our farmers over the decades where their cattle destroy their farm crops at will, where they rape their wives and children and kill anybody who dares their will with impurity.
7. That the resurgence or large scale perpetration of the evil has now gotten to an uncontrollable and unacceptable level that an open confrontation or war has now been provoked between the Yorubas and the Fulanis.
8. That before the war is ignited, we have deemed it fit to call this summit where we shall discuss and make our grouse and positions known to the Nigerian government and the global community to the effect of our further intolerance of the menace on our racial pride.
9. That, therefore, the idea of the Federal Government contemplating at all in the first instance to establish colonies or grazing reserves for the Fulanis is a direct ploy to take Nigerians’ lands for the Fulanis, and this is absolutely unaccepted to the Yorubas.
10. That the basis for giving preferential or sacred cow treatment to the Fulani herdsmen whose business contribute no resources whatsoever to the coffers of Nigerian government is not there at all.
11. That it is on record that 95% of the resources sustaining Nigerian government comes from the Southern part of the country.
12. That the cattle business of the Fulani herdsmen is their personal affair which other people of the country must not be sacrificed for.
13. That we are taking this opportunity to appreciate and declare as heroes the Governor of Kano State Mallam Abdullahi Ganduje and his Niger State counterpart Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello for gratuitously offering to allocate mass of lands respectively such sufficient enough as to harbour all the Fulani herdsmen in the country for the grazing of their cattle.
14. That consequent upon this, we implore the Federal Government to appreciate these gestures and seize the opportunity by the forelock and so direct all Fulani herdsmen in the country to relocate to Kano and Niger States respectively.
15. That we hereby implore the rest of the Northern Governors to emulate these two heroes.
16. That failure to accept these offers, any further incidents of farm destruction or attack on any person of Yoruba extraction in any Yoruba parts of Nigeria covering Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Ondo, Kwara, Kogi, Edo and Delta States would be given commensurate reprisals.
17. That essentially speaking, we implore all Fulani herdsmen to vacate Yoruba land with immediate effect and relocate to Kano and Niger States or their Northern States of conquest.
18. That we are conscious of the fact that a lot of our well-to-do people in Yoruba land also have their cattle breeding contracted to the Fulani herdsmen.
19. That we therefore implore all Yorubas in this category to withdraw their cattle with immediate effect and establish ranches, pens or byres for their cattle breeding.
20. That we take this opportunity to implore our well-to-do people to begin cattle breeding enterprises in a very conventional way.
21. That we implore all our states to establish cattle-breeding settlements for the beef consumption of our people without having to depend on the Fulanis’ cattle, after all, cattle-breeding is not a monopoly for the Fulanis alone.
22. That we are conscious of the fact that some of our traditional rulers in Yoruba land like Obas, Baales and Community leaders encourage the encroachment of the Fulani herdsmen into our lands by giving them titles like Jowuro, Seriki and Baranda. All traditional or community leaders in this category are implored to retract such titles.
23. That we emphasize that our traditional or community leaders should desist from mortgaging our land and the lives of our people to the Fulanis the way they did in the era of slave-trading.
24. That we take this opportunity to declare Mr. Ayodele Fayose the Ekiti State Governor as a hero of Yoruba land for being the only Yoruba governor who took the bull by the horns by legislating against the menace of the Fulanis in his State.
25. That we therefore implore all other Yoruba governors to be courageous enough as to follow suit.
26. That we are conscious that our law enforcement agents and military men have now started falling victims of the Fulani herdsmen’s menace.
27. That we therefore implore them not to be kowtowed by any compromise against their people but rather join us in the battle against the crudity and baseless murders of the people and destruction of farm lands.
28. That we commiserate with Governor Sam Otom and the people of Benue State on the recent evil perpetrated against their kinsmen.
29. That we also commiserate with all Yorubas’ relations who have fallen victims of the Fulani’s menace over the decades and most recently.
30. That we share our feelings with Chief Olu Falae and Admiral Samuel Afolayan a former Chief of Naval Staff of Nigeria over the wanton and massive destruction of their respective farmlands by the Fulani herdsmen.
31. That a standing committee of representatives from each state shall be established to ensure the implementation of the resolutions so arrived at.
Written by:
Innocent Chukwudi Peace
For: IPOB ABUJA MEDIA HEAD
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