The Caretaker Chairman of Ibarapa North-West Local Council Development Area, Okediji Olusegun, has corroborated allegations of complicity levelled against the Seriki Fulani of Igangan, Salihu Abdukadir, saying that the Seriki had been fingered in the series of security challenges in the area many times.
It will be recalled that frontline Yoruba nationalist fighter, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, has accused the Abdulkadir, among several other allegations, of collecting ransom for kidnapped persons on behalf of Fulani kidnappers.
Violence erupted at Igangan, a town in Ibarapa area of Oyo State on Friday as Sunday Igboho, accompanied by hundreds of thousands of his followers, stormed the Fulani settlement in the ancient town and ejected Salihu Abdukadir and his fellow herdsmen accused of perpetrating crimes ranging from kidnappings, killings, rape to invasion of farmlands with their cattle.
During the crisis, the Seriki Fulani of Igangan and his family members were evicted from the town and their property torched.
As a follow up to the crisis that engulfed the community, Oyo State government sent a delegation led by the Special Adviser to the governor on Security Matters, Fatai Owoseeni, accompanied by the newly appointed Police Commissioner, Ngozi Onadeko.
Community leaders told the state government delegation that they had paid a total of N50m as ransoms for kidnappings carried out by herdsmen in the community and that about 15 of their women have been sexually molested.
The community also presented to the delegation, pictures and other evidence of ransoms paid to the herdsmen.
They accused the Seriki Fulani of complicity in the negotiation of ransoms.
The Secretary of Igangan Development Advocates, Lawal Akeem, said the people were tired of the antics of the Seriki Fulani of Igangan, whom he accused of complicity in different kidnap cases.
He also confirmed that the community had been forced to pay about N50 million in ransoms for different cases of kidnapping, while also accusing Fulani herders of regularly vandalising farms and raping women of the community.
