OYO SET UP SUVEILLANCE UNIT TO MONITOR HERDSMEN

Ajimobi also directed the immediate registration of herdsmen and possibly their cattle to separate genuine pastoralists from criminal-minded herders, as well as the convocation of a monthly stakeholders’ meeting at the state and local government levels.

He called on Oyo residents to join hands with the government to secure the state by being vigilant and to always report any form of security breach to the appropriate security agencies instead of taking the law into their own hands.

The governor advocated ranching as a long-term solution to the crises, but enjoined the stakeholders to deliberate on a mutually-beneficial solution in the interim, stressing that ranching was the best global practice.

In his own contribution, Oyo State Police Commissioner, Abiodun Odude, said that the police had the personnel, equipment, the will and capacity to deal decisively with any criminal element in the name of herdsman.

The police boss expressed the regret that no fewer than nine people, including the officer in charge of Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS), had been killed in the last two weeks, disclosing that seven people had so far been arrested in connection with the criminal activities, promising that more would be arrested and brought to justice.

“The happenings in the last two weeks have been disheartening. We recorded killings of the officer in charge of SARS; a 70-year-old man, five unidentified people and another farmer, in Iseyin, Saki and Ile-Ido. So far, we have recorded death of nine people and we have arrested seven suspects,” he said.

“It is pathetic. We know that the cardinal programme of the state administration is to maintain peace and security. We are not going to allow such things to happen again. We have the men, the equipment and will to ensure that peace is restored. We must learn to live in peace.”

Penpushing report that, the meeting was attended by the representatives of farmers, Fulani herdsmen, security agencies and other stakeholders, at the House of Chiefs, Secretariat, Ibadan.