Will the return of Sunday Igboho lead to fresh crisis between Yoruba farmers and Fulani herders?

By Adeniyi Kabeer On Mar 6, 2024

Yoruba Nations agitators — Sunday Igboho

Sunday Adeyemo, a self-acclaimed warlord named after his home town Igboho, in Oyo State, after over 30 months away. He fled the country following an attack on his residence in Ibadan in July 2021 by agents of the State Security Service (SSS).

While the self-styled activist expressed gratitude to everyone who supported him during his travail n Nigeria and the Republic of Benin, he insists that he committed to the actualisation of the Yoruba nation under the aegis of the Ilana Omo Oodua movement, led by Banji Akintoye, a professor.

Speaking in a viral video, Igboho said the people of the south-west do not need soldiers to drive away killer herdsmen from their farmlands. “We need to come together. We should take charge of the security of the south-west. We don’t need to wait for anybody or the government. They have taken away our land. Can we still go to the farm again? We cannot go to the farm. They killed our monarchs in Ekiti state.We don’t need soldiers for protection. After we pursue them from our land, we will now start farming. We are going to work together with our elders to achieve the security of our land.”

Unending crisis?

The crisis between farmers and herders, which has claimed thousands of lives, has become one of Nigeria’s gravest security challenges in recent years. The conflict, which is fundamentally a resource control problem between farmers and herders across the country, is fast sharpening ethnic, regional, and religious polarisation.

While most of the herders can be said to be Muslim-Fulani, who are traditionally nomadics, the farmers are often found across Christian denominations of various ethnic groups. Some of the problems identified are related to land and water use, obstruction of traditional migration routes, livestock theft, and crop damage.

Truly, there are killings in many states of the country but the conflict has been laced with weaving destructive conspiracy narratives and fake news on social media. It was this misinformation that brought Igboho into limelight.

For instance there was outrage in late 2020 and early 2021 following the death of Fatai Aborede, a large-scale farmer and politician in Igangan community in Ibarapa area of Oyo State, Southwest Nigeria. The widely circulated report on his death was that he was killed by Fulani herdsmen while returning from his farm.

This led to the unlawful intervention of separatist agitator, Sunday Igbohp who visited the Igangan community in the Ibarapa area of Oyo State to evict Seriki Fulani of Igangan, Salihu Abdulkadir, an action that was condemned by the state and federal governments.

Igboho claimed that Abdulkadir was responsible for the kidnapping and killing of farmers and residents of the community. Even after his denial, the Fulani leader and his subjects were forcefully sent out from the community they had lived in for decades. For the authorities, Igboho went above the roof because “no citizen has the right to eject others from wherever they wish to reside in the country.” However, many argued that he was filling the vacuum the government failed to fix.

Igboho later proceeded to neighbouring Ogun State to purportedly evict herders residing there. Months later, there was a reprisal attack. While the police claimed that 11 people died in the attack, residents said over 20 people lost their lives in the battle.

While Aborede’s death was a focal point to justify the eviction of head of Fulani in the community, investigation by Neusroom, an online newspaper quoted the deceased’s father to have said his son’s death was a political assassination, disguised as herdsmen murder. The police later said his death was sponsored by his political opponents and a suspect has been remanded.

Now that Igboho is back, will he continue to unlawfully flush Fulanis out of South West?