From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
A socio-cultural group, Yoruba Youth Forum (YYF), Ogun State chapter, has warned herdsmen migrating to the state, to desist from activities capable of threatening peace in the state.
The chairman of the group, Olusola Adewusi, who gave the warning in a statement signed by the Publicity Secretary of YYF, Adesesan Ajayi, yesterday, in Abeokuta, said the warning became imperative in the face of the report of the massive migration of the herdsmen into the state from Oke-Ogun and Ibarapa areas of Oyo State.
He urged herdsmen engaged in legitimate business to live peacefully with their hosts and devise means of fishing out criminal elements living among them.
Adewusi said a lot of atrocities such as rape, kidnapping, robbery, wanton destruction of farms and murder had been alleged to be committed by the herdsmen in the South West, calling on the youths to be vigilant and report any crime to the appropriate security agencies.
He noted that the Nigerian Constitution allows every Nigerian to live and do business anywhere in the country, but urged that killing, raping, kidnapping, and other criminal acts being perpetrated by killer herdsmen should be tackled by the security agencies, to prevent people from resorting to self-help.
YYF chairman, however, warned youths in the state not to take the laws into their hands and maintain the peace, recalling that security agencies remain the constitutional apparatus to handle issues of insecurity.
Adewusi, however, commended the state governor, Dapo Abiodun, for taking the security of lives and property of residents of the state seriously by providing patrol vans, bikes, and other equipment to various security outfits, to combat insecurity.