Lawan Blames South West Gov’s For Attack On Fulanis

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has blamed Southwest Governors and opinion leaders in the region for the recent violence in Sasha market in Ibadan, Oyo State, where scores were killed with property destroyed.

Lawan also attributed violence against northerners in the region to divisive utterances allegedly made by some Southwest Governors.

Speaking in an interview with BBC Hausa Service, Lawan attributed the violence to the latest call for the eviction of Fulani herders out of Southwestern states.

He said “leadership failures in the region because of what happened in Oyo State and other things that kept happening in the Southwestern states,” he said.

“Some utterances by some governors also went a long way in inciting the citizens to take up arms against other ethnic groups settling in their states.

“The Governors’ utterances emboldened the criminals to unleash violence against the northerners.”

Crisis erupted on February 18 in Shaha following an argument between a pregnant Yoruba woman and a Hausa businessman.

The development resulted in riots which rendered some residents homeless.

Rotimi Akeredolu, governor of Ondo State, had last month issued a seven-day quit notice to Fulani herdsmen operating illegally in the state’s forest reserves.

The governor also banned underage grazing, night grazing, and cattle movement within the cities and on highways, causing a national uproar.

Flowing from this, herdsmen operating in the state were mandated to register with the government before they were allowed to graze in the forest reserves in the state.

Sunday Adeyemo, better known as Sunday Igboho, also asked herdsmen in Igangan in Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo state to leave within seven days following reports of the killing of some residents.

Days after, violence erupted in the area during which the houses and property of the Seriki Fulani, Alhaji Saliu Abdulkadir, were burnt.

The Seriki had alleged that himself, his wife and children were sent out of the settlement, as some 11 vehicles and houses belonging to the Fulanis were destroyed in the process.