Fear as herdsmen write Ogun communities over planned attack

Residents of Asa, Agbon, Ibeku and Oja-Odan communities in the Yewa-North Local Government Area of Ogun State are now under fear of possible attacks following letters they received from those they described as killer herdsmen.

The unknown persons were said to have written residents of the Ogun communities in Ogun state, threatening to invade their house in a reprisal attack.

According to the notice pasted on walls across the villages concerned on Saturday, the men informed the residents of their intention to attack the communities soon.

In the letter written in English and Hausa languages, the said herdsmen notified leaders of the communities to expect their coming between December and January, 2023.

“Attention! Attention!! Attention!! To all following communities; Asa, Agbon, lbeku, Oja-odan and its environs.

Advertisement

“You think you can send away our people from the land they bought in Nigeria, our fathers land, you kill our people, you kill their cows, you take over all their properties. You think you can go scot-free. It’s high time we came for revenge.

“All the above-mentioned communities’ leaders should prepare for the war between December and January. We are coming to take back our father’s property,” the notice read.

Contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer in Ogun, Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed that he had seen the letter.

However, Oyeyemi assured the communities of the command’s commitment to unravel those behind the notice of attack.

“Well, I saw the letter purportedly written by a baseless group. We believe it is a baseless group that wrote the letter. No information is too small to take note of.

“We are not neglecting it. We are working on it to unravel those behind it,” he said.

Newspot recalls that farmers/herders clashed have claimed lives in the affected communities from time past.

In the first quarter of 2021, many residents of the communities fled their homes for neighbouring Benin Republic, to avoid being killed by the herdsmen.

The crisis got to its peak after a Yoruba Nation agitator visited Igua in Yewa North to evict some Fulani herders.

The Fulani settlement in Igua area was set on fire by some irate youths after Sunday Igboho’s.

In reprisal, many villages were attacked by some suspected herders, who killed and set houses on fire.

It took the intervention of Governor Dapo Abiodun and some northern governors to bring the situation under control.