Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, has written an open letter to the government regarding insecurity in the country, especially attacks by Fulani herdsmen in the Southwest geo-political zone, warning that if not immediately addressed, it could lead to other serious national catastrophes and security challenges.
According to the Alaafin, there is no vacant land anywhere on earth, as all lands belong to a group of persons either as ancestral homeland or by staying there for ages which the law supports.
He warned that by the time Yorubas fight back by all available, possible weapons, charm, thunderstorms, or other unconventional means, those who urge invaders will have a rethink.
The monarch noted; ”If lands belong to inhabitants, then the peace and security of that land must be the responsibility of the inhabitants. The inhabitants should know who to allow, who not to allow depending on the existential threat available.
”If someone has no right to occupy a room in your house without your consent, I think it’s wrong for any ethnic group to occupy any portion of another man’s land without consent, authority, or approval. It won’t end well for the people who made such incursions.
”Why should someone just enter into my bush and settle down? What of the plans I have for the land? Should I pay someone who is not a stakeholder before I can dwell on the land my ancestors had been on for centuries? It may result in something terrible soon.”
According to the Alaafin, the invasion of the Yoruba forest by armed herdsmen has left them with two options. They either leave their lands for the invaders or fight back.
He wrote: ”Yoruba has two options, it is either we vacate our lands and move into the Atlantic ocean so that our guest can have peace, or Yoruba will fight back by all available and possible weapons human mind can conceive be it charm, thunderstorm or other unconventional means perhaps those who urge invaders will have a rethink.
”Ondo state didn’t say other ethnic groups should leave the state, no! The governor said to leave the forest and let us know you.
”The population of the killers no matter their tribes can’t overwhelm the entire Yoruba land because they just assumed that they are violent but they forget that the will to survive in one’s ancestral land is beyond weapons especially on our lands and in our forests. We wait till all civil means are exhausted. Sooner the world will experience the reason why Yoruba must live. I mean live peacefully in their homeland.”
Comparing the manner of upbringing in different tribes, the Monarch wrote: ”Yorubas invest in their children in the west. A poor widow will still send her children to school with the little she has without government assistance.
”In another land, children are thrown into the street to beg, we don’t have issues with that it’s cultural. Why should someone whose parents never seen them as worthy of anything become a menace to the one who invested in her children and be abducted like a goat? It won’t end well, will never end well. They will rather die defending their rights to survive than living in infamy.”
Showing his support for different freedom fighters and activists who have emerged in recent times, Alaafin wrote; ”Where conventional approach failed, alternative means are upheld. Sunday Igboho, Amotekun, Agbekoya, OPC, local vigilante, and others could be crude but I will say it here, no crude way to survive or stay alive. The first law of living is survival, we survive to negotiate how to live together.”
The monarch concluded by urging the government to take responsibility and tackle the issue of insecurity before locals take the law into their hands.
”I am sure this will fade off before December by any means possible. Either government attends to it at the federal or state level or the locals result to alternative means something must happen
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