•How his son met his death
•Why Ibarapas want herders to leave
•His son was generous
•The last time I saw the kind of crowd that welcome Sunday Igboho was when i performed pilgrimage
• Sunday Igboho promised to send Seriki Fulani away over my son’s killing
Father of deceased Dr. Fatai Aborode who was allegedly murdered by herdsmen in December, 2020, Alhaji Lasisi Folohunso Aborode, has spoken about the long history of herder settlements in Ibarapa axis of Oyo State, the advent of unrest in the zone and the death of his son.
In an interview with Nigerian Tribune, the 79-year old said hat Fulani herdsmen have been terrorizing they for long without any assistance from constituted authority.
He recalled how “On our farms, we would come across very young children herding cattle. We would not know that the parents of these child-herders were hidden on a tree. Should the farmer confront the child-herder for destroying his farm, the hidden chaperon on the tree would suddenly appear and accost the farmer. The farmer would then be attacked.”
“I have been alive and around for a while now. How do you see and hear this and not get saddened? That is why our people are insisting that these herders leave. About three months back, they became very particular in kidnapping and killing people here in Igangan.
“My late son owned a big farm. He was a mechanized farmer. He would give these herders salt. In fact, he went as far as employing as harvesters the wives of these Fulani herdsmen. He did this whenever it was harvest time. He ensured that they were paid handsomely. He was generous to them; he was friendly.”
On his son died, he explained that “He had planted soya and it was time to harvest. He had a relatively large body of employees; he had two farm managers. He got them motorcycles to aid them in their supervisory role. After the discharge of their daily duties, he would ensure that each employee was well paid. He would feed them. He had makeshift houses for them on the farms and so people travelled from neighboring communities so as to work for him and earn some money. The women who worked for him on the farm were great beneficiaries of this gesture. In fact, many of the workers never wanted such harvesting periods to be over considering the financial remuneration that they got. When his corn farm was not doing well and if it had little or no prospect at a good yield, my son would call the various herders’ communities and ask them to graze their cattle there freely. Normally the herders would have paid handsomely for this. The herders love grazing their cows on corn farms.
“However on this day, December 11—it was the worst day of my life—I was not at home. We are very pained. We are true Muslims; my son was a Muslim. The Quran taught us that whoever God loves, he tries by unsavory vicissitudes of life. Look at the life of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). He had seven children. Only one buried him; six of his children died while he was alive. The death of one of them, Kasumu, was very painful to him. He loved Kasumu so much. He died on Ileya (which is a very important festivity among Muslims). The enemies of Prophet Muhammad mocked him; they said considering his loss, he would not perform his religious obligations to God. The Prophet was human. There is an angel called Jibril. He is very close to God. Angel Jibril travelled down to the earth after God mandated the angel to tell the Prophet that he should perform his religious duties despite the fact that God understood what he was going through. God said the Prophet must accept his sovereignty. The Prophet went ahead and performed his religious obligations.
The death of one’s child is terrible. No parent prays for it.”
He revealed that “It is only government that can explain what it is doing about this,” adding that “The only person who God has used as our messiah is Sunday Igboho. My son was a politician. When he was with Oyo State former governor, Ladoja, my son and Sunday Igboho got to know each other. Sunday Igboho visited me. He greeted me so warmly. He told me: ‘Baba, I knew your son very well while we were together with former governor Ladoja. Your son was generous and accommodating. I never knew we were from the same geographical spread here in Ibarapa/Oke Ogun. Look at my tribal marks. They are exactly like yours. I also saw the same tribal marks on your son’s cheeks.”
“Sunday Igboho then told me that whoever was responsible for his brother’s (my son) death would feel his wrath. He promised to chase them out wherever they could be hiding. I pleaded with him to be patient and calm. I begged him to contain his anger. He informed me that he would return in seven days and that Seriki Saliu should vacate this place.
When next Sunday Igboho would return, the crowd that received him was unprecedented. The last time I saw a glimpse of such crowd was when I visited Mecca on holy pilgrimage. For over six hours, the crowd surged on his visit. It was a standstill.
“No farmer in this region would want the herders here, considering the huge destruction that they have caused. It is now left for the government to find a lasting solution to this. Those kidnappers make a lot of money. Many relatively rich indigenes who could not sleep at home have returned and can now sleep since Sunday Igboho visited.”
