BY REBECCA AJANI
YORUBA activist, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly called Sunday Igboho, has urged Yoruba people to defend themselves when they are faced with criminals who want to kill them.
He said the Yoruba people deserved peace and would not want banditry to go on unchecked or herdsmen to continue killing them.
Igboho spoke when former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, visited him at his Soka, Ibadan residence, in Oyo State.
Reactions have however continued to trail Fani-Kayode’s visit, with some people saying the visit was just a show off and demanding to know the exact message the former minister was trying to pass across with such visit.
“Is it the next thing for Fani-Kayode to start going to pay homage to Igboho? Is that the solution to the crisis we face right now? People should stop reporting this man’s activities. It is somehow,” Ade Adetoyinbo, a political affairs analyst, told THE POINT.
“That visit is senseless. Must he visit him physically? What exactly is that man (Fani-Kayode) looking for? The visit does not seem to me as a sensible one even if Yorubas believe Igboho did the right thing,” another popular analyst, Sola Thomas, added.
After the meeting, Igboho, who noted that Fani-Kayode had said all that should be said, added, “My message to my people in Yorubaland is that they must try to defend themselves. Don’t let anyone come to your farm or your home to kill you. You must defend yourself, which was what the minister said too.”
On his visit, the former minister noted, “My purpose is to come and stand side by side, shoulder by shoulder, with someone I have immense respect for. He has shown the world and most importantly, he has shown Yoruba people that we are not cowards; we are not people who can be pushed around, we are not people who can be pillaged, killed and raped, and those that perpetrate this crime feel at ease in our land.”
“So, I have come to express my appreciation and solidarity with somebody that I believe has done the right thing without violating any laws in this country because that is very important. I don’t believe he has done that.”
He however said if it was okay for herdsmen to carry AK-47 to defend themselves, it was also logical for members of the local communities and farmers to have the right to carry guns.
He said, “A good friend of mine, the Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed. We served together as ministers. He said a few days ago that Fulani herdsmen should be given the right to carry AK-47. I disagree with that but that was his opinion and, like I told him, he is entitled to his opinion and he can voice it.
“If you go by that principle, then it makes absolute sense that if Fulani are allowed to carry AK-47 to defend their cows and their lives if they feel threatened, then it is also logical for members of the local communities, farmers and each and every one of us to also have that right to defend ourselves against killer Fulani herdsmen and against those that are coming to kill us and rape our women.
“I am totally and completely behind that. Why not? We are responsible and decent people. The Americans have that right, it is enshrined in their constitution and if it is also that we could carry arms, perhaps we won’t have the kind of atrocities that are being committed throughout the country and not just throughout the South, even in the North.”
