…”He’s wrong to issue eviction notice to herdsmen”, says Falana
The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has warned Yoruba activist and freedom fighter, Sunday Igboho, not to take laws into his hands even as he is fighting for the liberation of the Yoruba from criminal herdsmen.
The Ooni, who gave the warning while appearing on a television programme on Wednesday, said that having spoken out for the down-trodden and shown everyone that he really cares for his people, it was time for Igboho to allow the constituted authorities including the Oyo Stat governor, Seyi Makinde, and other leaders to take charge and handle the security challenges in the State.
In the same vein, Lagos-based lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) has declared the eviction order issued by Igboho to Fulani herders in the Ibarapa local government area of Oyo State as unlawful and wrong.
Falana, in a BBC interview on Wednesday, said the Fulani had the right to live in Ibarapa-land, having been there for decades and advised them to seek redress in courts, saying their fundamental human rights had been violated.
Falana warned against generalisation, saying criminal elements must be arrested and prosecuted without an entire ethnic group being labelled as criminals.
We must stop the idea of criminal profiling; if anybody has committed an offence or a group of people has committed an offence, we must fish them out and have them tried under the law but you cant wake up and say all Yoruba people, all Hausa people are criminals, all Igbo people are criminals. No, it is a fallacy of generalisation, he noted.
He blamed governmental failure for the rise of people like Sunday Igboho, saying if justice had been ensured there wouldnt have been such situations.
