The Aare Onakakanfo in Council chaired by Iba Gani Adams, has threatened to fight back if attacks and kidnappings by violent Fulani herdsmen continue in the Southwest.

In a communique issued after its meeting, the council said Fulani herdsmen have been ravaging Yoruba land, kidnapping, killing, maiming, raping the people in recent years, calling on the federal government to increase security in the Southwest.

The council warned violent herdsmen to steer clear of Yoruba land, warning that failure to live peacefully “may warrant maximum retaliation as the principle dictates that a bully only respects a bully”.

It said the threat posed by the existence by the marauders cannot be overlooked, lamenting that despite several appeals, the herdsmen have continued to wreak havoc in the region.

The communique reads:

“They have proven that they have come to steal, destroy, and kill; as evident in the unmitigated attacks on communities where their nomadic enterprise takes them.

“As true spawns of Oduduwa, we are unequivocally forthright about this threat posed by this group which the federal government has turned a blind eye to by refusing to call a spade by its name, dubbing the Fulani marauders as criminals, bandits, and pillagers.

“We are acquainted with the nature of Fulani nomads in the past, and we know as a matter of fact that they were not carrying AK47s. It is because of this naked truth that we ask that these people be labelled as what they are. We are clamoring that the appropriate moniker should be used to tag them. They should be addressed as FULANI BANDITS.

The council advised Obas and local Chiefs to show more than “passing interest in the activities of people in their domains’’, saying they must know that they cannot be blameless for their failure to account for and monitor strangers in their areas of jurisdictions, particularly those whose activities run contrary to peaceful coexistence.

“We demand concrete action by the Buhari Administration over the activities of these murderous gangs. We are no longer comfortable with the continuing brutalization and murderous humiliation of our people. Government’s silence is distressing as it is emboldening the criminals. President Buhari must act now,” it read.