Fulani Herdsmen Invade Farm Settlement In Oyo

Some hoodlums, including herdsmen, on Tuesday night, invaded a farm belonging to a former Secretary to the Oyo State Government, Mr. Ayodele Adigun and forced settlers in the place to flee their residence.

According to sources, the invaders stormed the farm settlement at Lagun, in Lagelu Local Government area of the state around 9pm wielding dangerous weapons.

Eyewitnesses say the intruders were not only Fulani herdsmen as some of them reportedly spoke in pidgin English, Fulani and Yoruba.

Two of the residents, Haruna Usman and Olanipekun Ogunkolade said the hoodlums had two sophisticated guns each while robbing them of their valuables. They said items such as phones, money, shoes and foodstuffs were carted away by the intruders. One of the victims, Mr Jimmy Adedokun who sustained gunshot injuries on his hands and legs was admitted at a hospital in Iwo, Osun State.

“When they arrived at 9pm yesterday night (Tuesday), they ransacked everywhere and shot Jimmy after dispossessing him of his weapons. They took garri from us, and drank it. One of us just prepared a fish soup and eba but the invaders ate everything,” Ogunkolade said.

The owner of the farm, Mr. Adigun said residents of the settlement had run for dear life and had relocated to another place noting that “to me, the invasion of the farm was a ploy to permanently sack the farmers from the community so that they could take over and use the farm as grazing field.”

When asked who the suspects could be, the farm manager Mr Emmanuel said: “we suspected that the invaders are Fulani herdsmen because they wore shoes like herdsmen and they spoke Fulani and pidgin English. Earlier in the day, they had mounted roadblocks at Lagun on Ibadan – Iwo Road. We learnt that they robbed the road users early in the morning and at night. We sighted over 50 Fulani herdsmen moving from one community to another in this place on the grounds that they wanted to buy Indian hemp.”