Insecurity: Igangan Development Advocate writes Governor Seyi Makinde

It is with a heavy heart that we welcome His Excellency needless to state, we were all affected by the devastating blow recently dealt on the entire people of Igangan which explained our sadness.

The onslaught, which took place from 11pm Saturday, June 5 to 3am of Sunday, 6th June, 2021 was, to say the least, not only a premeditated one but also callous, horrendous and barbaric.

It offends every sensibility of decency, unity and harmony being preached at every government quarter.

Prior to this carnage, and precisely on April 14 and later on the April 25 2021 alarms from the intelligence reports covertly gathered by the Igangan Development Advocates were vehemently raised and channeled to the appropriate government quarters while it was also given a wide publicity on some media platforms that the certain sect of Fulanis led by the son of Seriki Saliu, simply known as Ibrahim Saliu were coordinating a plan to besiege Igangan on a reprisal attack in reaction to the eviction of his father, Kadri Saliu, a kingpin of the criminal cartel that made Ibarapa a dreadful turf by godfathering for farm plundering fulani and Bororo herdsmen as well as running an underground cartel of killings and kidnappings and who to the elation of all Ibarapa Indigenes was evicted some time ago by Chief Sunday Igboho.

Our deafening alarms of an impending attack most especially on Igangan, Tapa and Ayete received nothing short of a deadening response from the state.

Despite our frantic efforts, it would seem that the State Government had thought our memos inconsequential and our messages as well as clarion calls on the media as just another social media hype not worthy of any form of attention.
It is worthy of note; no step was taken by the State Government to act on our alarms as well as preventive proposal to tighten the security around Igangan and Ibarapa lands.

And so it happened that throughout the period of the stormy and deadly attack unleashed on Igangan, there was no iota of State intervention as the town groped in the heat of carnage for help with just a handful of poorly armed yet valiant local hunters, some of whom also sacrificed their lives to save our town.

It was gathered that Ibrahim Saliu had even been so daring as to go on social media and some radio stations to issue several threats about how Igangan would be razed down to a heap of ashes soon!

It would seem that he made good his promise to have not only a pound of flesh from the fleshy haven of Igangan, but also razed some critical mass of the town down as the hordes of Fulani attackers set shops, parked cars, houses including the Oba’s palace, (the Asigangan of Igangan’s Palace) and many other valuables and property ablaze.

Setting the Oba’s Palace ablaze is quite metaphorical as it implies setting the town’s headship and soul ablaze to capture the entire town. It is equally a taboo, a costly one at that, in Yoruba land!

When situated against the background of the fact that proofs of sophisticated weaponry like AK47 being brought in via the porous land borders surrounding Igangan, Oke-ogun and Ogun State was widely publicized and consistent alarms were raised on the mass infiltration of Igangan and Ibarapa with armed Fulani terrorists, it leaves a permanently bitter taste in the mouth of any right thinking person that no proactive step was deemed fit by the State Government to forestall the then impending doom that became a reality today.

The truth is that Igangan did all within her powers to see to her own security by herself as folks had been contributing resources and finance towards the administration of local hunters’ security architecture which held the fort during last night’s attack.

It is must be on record that but for valiance of our local hunters though poorly armed, the story would have been different as the town could have been completely razed down into rubbles in utter realization of Ibrahim Saliu’s continuous threats to do so.

If the state has learnt anything therefore from the attack on Igangan, a vital one will be to open more and direct listening ear to the alarms of helpless citizen via direct assess of genuinely concern associations to the Governor

To curb further siege that keeps laying waste her people and their means of livelihood; community security structure of the state needs integration of local hunters especially at every towns in Ibarapa.

It must be reiterated as a fact that; in the heat of the attack, the local hunters were the last men standing.
Let the State rise up to the proposal submitted to it by the Igangan Development Advocates (I.D.A.) to empower the local hunters whose list had been compiled, with the required logistics and presented to the security advisers of the Governor.

The State should also see to:
The immediate arrest and prosecution of
Kadiri Saliu, the Seriki Fulani and all his sons and especially, Ibrahim Saliu who had been all over the media, both conventional and social to issue series of threats to raze down Igangan.

Provision and dispensing of relief materials to all surviving victims and families of those who died in the course of the onslaught.

Provision of sound and free health care services to all victims of the onslaught.

Free education to the children of those who are killed in the attack.

Establishment of a domiciled Amotekun base in Igangan with adequate corps

Eempowerment of Amotekun to carry pump actions for the defence of the people of Ibarapa and the entire Oyo State.

Conversion of Igangan Police outpost to a Police Headquarters with adequate staffing.

Immediate implementation of the ban on open grazing which is one of the fulani herdsmen subterfuge strategy for weapon trafficking as well as militia incursion

Execute the commencement, with immediate effect, of Radio and TV announcements on the implementation and enforcement of the ban on open grazing not just as an exigent measure to prevent raising inflation as well as impending famine but also as a pivotal Security strategy to check easy arms and militias trafficking.

Deployment of the joint Security Task force to comb all the nooks and crannies of Igangan town and Ibarapa.

Once again as a matter of exigency, we at the I.D.A. hereby solicit again the goodwill of His Excellency not to allow undue bureaucracy to make us susceptible to another attack but to speedily expedite actions by empowering our local hunters who are so well acquainted with all local terrains in and around Igangan which gives them an edge on the planned security pedestal.

Today, Igangan, badly hit! licks her wounds as she suffers a heavy loss with many unnecessary casualties. Igangan bleeds profusely.

Her sons and daughters heavily massacred in an open, unchallenged genocidal attack by the Fulani hegemony.
When shall Igangan heal?
When shall Ibarapa be safe?
When shall these tales of woes end?
The answer lies with shouldering the responsibility with the valor of standing with the people, enacting anticipatory security measures, rapid response and insightful decisive actions.

Thank you.

Wale Oladokun
President, Igangan Development Advocates.