Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
Migrating Fulani herdsmen with hundreds of cattle heads in their fold having the intention to settle down in Kwara State have been resisted for the second time in three months to do so.
They were resisted to enter the state at Erin-Ile, in Oyun Local Government, which is a border town with Osun State.
The resistance came after a similar batch of herdsmen were also resisted about two months ago at Ipee, a neighbouring town with Erin-Ile.
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Sources at Erin-Ile said the attention of the State Joint Task Force made up of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), The Army and the Police were called by the people when they saw herders entering the town with an intimidating number of cattle.
It was these men of the Task Force that intercepted the alleged unexpected migrants to save what could have become a clash.
Spokesman of NSCDC in Kwara State, Mr. Babawale Afolabi, who made this known in the Ilorin, the Stare capital said the herders, who were stopped at Erinle-Offa axis, were with some of their cattle and were heading towards the end of Kwara- Osun state boundary.
He, however, said the herdsmen insisted they were on their way to Ajase-Ipo, an Igbomina community in lrepodun Local Government Area of the state.
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According to Afolabi; “on Aug. 4, suspected Fulani herdsmen in their hundreds were intercepted at Erinle, a border town in Oyun Local Government Area of Kwara.
“The suspected herdsmen were later led to Ajase-Ipo by the JTF where further background checks and profiling were been carried out by the appropriate security operatives”.
The NSCDC spokesman however said the herdsmen had been allowed to remain in Ajase-Ipo for now, pending the time background checks on them would be concluded.
Afolabi said that more security personnel had been deployed in and around Ajase-Ipo to for necessary security watch.