The Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba land, Otunba Gani Adams, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently address the rising cases of killings by herdsmen across the country.
He further warned that Yoruba land would no longer accept further killings in the region.
Adams who is also the national coordinator of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) was reacting to the Tuesday night assassination of a Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) chief by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Oyo State.
The SARs chief, an Assistant Superintendent of Police and officer-in-charge of the squad Saki Unit in the Oyo State Police Command, was hacked to death by suspected herdsmen during an operation in a forest on the Saki-Ogbooro Road in the Oke-Ogun area of the state.
But reacting in a statement on Thursday through his Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Aderemi, Adams describing the assailants as “blood-thirsty maniacs on the rampage in the country, masquerading as herdsmen,” and warned that Yoruba land would “resist any conspiracy aimed at killing our people at will.”
The Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba land said, “Historically, the Yoruba are known to have the capacity to defend themselves.
“These killers are testing the waters by burning the farm of Chief Olu Falae and invading the farms of prominent people in the South-West. We will no longer accept the activities of this murderous gang in Yoruba land. Enough is enough.
“The diplomacy of the Yoruba on national issues, especially when it borders on security, should not be misconstrued for cowardice. It is part of our nature to accommodate people from other ethnic nationalities. But now, our people cannot go to their farms again because of the fear of the unknown. The Federal Government must immediately check the activities of these killers to avoid plunging the country into an avoidable war.”
According to him, the killing of the SARS chief was “one killing too many,” adding that the “first fundamental right of a Nigerian is the right to life.”
He said, “It is when you are alive that you can enjoy other rights. Once this right is taken away from you through killings and murder, you cannot enjoy any other right. Nigerians demand right to life. More than 1,000 Nigerians have been killed in the last one year. Is Nigeria at war?”
On the way forward he said, “Restructuring is the only system that will bring about a just, fair and egalitarian society. I welcome the report of the Governor Nasir el-Rufai APC Committee which recommended restructuring.
“If Nigeria is going to survive as a nation, this country must be restructured. This is the time to have true federalism, state police, resource ownership and control, and an entirely new constitution deriving its legitimacy from the people.”
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