The Nigeria police has served invitations to residents of Ketu-Yewa speaking villages in Yewa North Area of Ogun State asking them to come to the Force Headquarters in Abuja for interrogation. This comes after soldiers escorted Fulani herdsmen to the villages on December 19, 2020 and flogged many of the residents for refusing to allow the herdsmen to graze their cattle on their farmlands.
The soldiers had also returned in a bid to silence the victims of the brutality. About six soldiers led by one Captain John Onyebuchi, visited some of the villages in the Yewa North Local Government Area of the state again at about 2pm on Friday, January 29, 2021.
The letter was signed by Mr. Kolo Yusuf, a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) of FIB Special Tactical Squad, Force Headquarters in Abuja.
According to a copy of the letter sighted by The Nation, the villagers are expected to be questioned by operatives on February 8.
The letter dated January 26, 2021, reads in part: “This office is investigating a case of criminal conspiracy, unlawful possession of prohibited firearms, causing grievous hurt and mischief that your name featured in.
“You are kindly requested to interview (sic) the undersigned officer on 8th February 2021 by 1000hrs through Assistant Superintendent of Police, ASP Sunday Ibrahim…”
The invitation has since created tension in the villagers as residents feared they could be detained by the police.
Read also: Killer herdsmen: Soldiers storm Ogun villages again
Some residents who spoke with our correspondent said the police invitation was at the instance of the embattled herders who they said were hell-bent on intimidating the villagers to submission after their plot to use soldiers to achieve their aim failed.
The residents noted that senior officers from the Ogun State Police Command had earlier visited the affected villages barely one month ago on a fact-finding mission and did not find them wanting.
A resident of Asa village, Akanbi Afolabi, said: “The police invitation is another brazen attempt by the unrelenting herdsmen to silence us just so they can continue to unlawfully graze on our farmlands and by extension further their raping and killing of our women and daughters.
“They said we are being investigated for unlawful possession of firearms whereas the herders who had been attacking us with guns and machetes were never for once investigated let alone prosecuted for opening fire on our people and killing many residents.”
A farmer in Agbon-Ojodu, Lamidi Adeola, said the police were only trying to achieve what the soldiers could not do for the herders.
He said: “The police invitation is laughable. It is another ploy by the herdsmen to achieve their mission, which is to take over our farmlands and chase us away from our homes.
“The state police command had earlier in January visited here and confirmed that we have been calm in the face of provocation by fiendish herders. Hence, the latest invitation from Force Headquarters, Abuja is worrisome.
“We learnt that the plan was to invite us to Abuja where we would be detained for several months while the herders would have destroyed whatever is left of our ravaged farms by the time we are released.
“The irony of it all is that the herders who have been terrorising us with rifles and machetes are not being accused of bearing unlawful firearms while innocent villagers are now being hunted by the police for spurious allegations.
“Believe me, if our people had firearms, there would have been a balance of terror. But we are law abiding citizens, hence, we did not retaliate the attacks carried out against us lately.
“The only thing we have done is to resist herders from grazing in our villages, and that is why we are being unduly harassed by soldiers and policemen.”
The spokesman for Ogun State Police Command, Mr. Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the Command had no knowledge of the invitation served on the villagers from the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
Oyeyemi said: “We have no idea that the villagers have been served with an invitation by the Force Headquarters, Abuja. We shall find out the veracity of the invitation.
“However, we had visited the communities on January 3rd, where we held meetings with the community leaders and the leadership of the herdsmen to ensure that peace reigns between the host communities and herdsmen.”
ASP Ibrahim however confirmed that the police had actually invited the villagers for interrogation in Abuja.
Ibrahim said: “It is true that we served the invitation on some villagers in Yewa area of Ogun State.
“There’s a petition from the office of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) that was sent to our office, and I was detailed to investigate it, noting that it would amount to treason that troops, wearing army uniforms “and bearing arms procured with taxpayers’ money, openly took sides against a group of law-abiding Nigerians on their ancestral land.”
Speaking with The Nation, a monarch whose jurisdiction covers some of the villages, the Eselu of Iseluland, Oba Akintunde Akinyemi, urged the federal government to rein in the Army and the police in order that peace might reign.
He also called for the establishment of a judicial panel of inquiry to, among others, investigate the brutalizing of residents by soldiers while siding with herders, killings and destruction of farmlands by herdsmen as well as the complicity of policemen from Abuja in the alleged plot to invite residents for interrogation in a bid to silence them.
Oba Akinyemi said: “The federal government must as a matter of urgency restrain the Army and operatives of Force Headquarters, Abuja from being used by herders to brutalise and intimidate my people. Enough is enough.
“But more importantly, we want the state government to commission a judicial panel of inquiry to investigate the complicity of the military and police in the heinous attacks on our people by herdsmen, especially the recent
“We served the invitation letters on the people (the herders) they were complaining against and a date (February 8) has been fixed for the people mentioned to come around to people and killing many residents.”
A farmer in Agbon-Ojodu, Lamidi Adeola, said the police were only trying to achieve what the soldiers could not do for the herders.
He said: “The police invitation is laughable. It is another ploy by the herdsmen to achieve their mission, which is to take over our farmlands and chase us away from our homes.
“The state police command had earlier in January visited here and confirmed that we have been calm in the face of provocation by fiendish herders. Hence, the latest invitation from Force Headquarters, Abuja is worrisome.
“We learnt that the plan was to invite us to Abuja where we would be detained for several months while the herders would have destroyed whatever is left of our ravaged farms by the time we are released.
“The irony of it all is that the herders who have been terrorising us with rifles and machetes are not being accused of bearing unlawful firearms while innocent villagers are now being hunted by the police for spurious allegations.
“Believe me, if our people had firearms, there would have been a balance of terror. But we are law abiding citizens, hence, we did not retaliate the attacks carried out against us lately.
“The only thing we have done is to resist herders from grazing in our villages, and that is why we are being unduly harassed by soldiers and policemen.”
The spokesman for Ogun State Police Command, Mr. Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the Command had no knowledge of the invitation served on the villagers from the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
Oyeyemi said: “We have no idea that the villagers have been served with an invitation by the Force Headquarters, Abuja. We shall find out the veracity of the invitation.
“However, we had visited the communities on January 3rd, where we held meetings with the community leaders and the leadership of the herdsmen to ensure that peace reigns between the host communities and herdsmen.”
ASP Ibrahim however confirmed that the police had actually invited the villagers for interrogation in Abuja.
Ibrahim said: “It is true that we served the invitation on some villagers in Yewa area of Ogun State.
“There’s a petition from the office of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) that was sent to our office, and I was detailed to investigate it.
“We served the invitation letters on the people (the herders) they were complaining against and a date (February 8) has been fixed for the people mentioned to come around to police invitation served on hapless villagers, whose crops and farmlands have been destroyed by herders who also killed several women and men in these communities.
He added: “The police invitation of villagers who are mostly farmers is funny in the sense that the villagers’ means of livelihood have been destroyed by herders; so where will they get thousands of naira to transport themselves to and from Abuja, where intelligence gathered has revealed that they might likely be detained for several weeks?
“Recently, with the assistance of a local vigilance group, three herdsmen with one Ak47 rifle, machetes, and assorted live ammunition and cartridges were apprehended after they killed one Olabisi Afolabi and attacked some women at Moro and Eegelu villages.
“The suspects, namely Mohammed Bello, Muhammed Momoh and Yisau Umoru, were detained at the state police command, Eleweran, Abeokuta, but were released without being prosecuted.
“Therefore, it is funny that those who are victims of herders’ attacks are the ones being invited for interrogation in Abuja while herdsmen who are the tormentors have not been questioned even once.
The Nation
