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Popular Yoruba activist, Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho spoke with journalists in Ibadan on Tuesday on how his house was razed and his disappointment in some Yorubas supporting herdsmen. Platform Times present the excerpts:
Your house got burnt in the early hours of Tuesday; tell us what you know about how it happened?
Around 3:30 am, some of my brothers alerted me that some hoodlums came to my residence shooting sporadically into the air. Shortly after, they set the house on fire. On getting there they had escaped so I called the firefighters to help put out the fire.
What is surprising to me is that I never expected that we Yoruba people should not be in support of the evils being perpetrated by the herdsmen. I am surprised that the Fulani are killing our people in our own territory. They rape and kidnap our people.
It is a terrible thing so I am trying to repel them. But it is shocking to me that despite the efforts that I am making some Yoruba people are supporting Fulani herdsmen to set my house on fire. It is so distressing and it saddens me
Who do you suspect?
For now, I am not suspecting anybody. But Yoruba people would say there is no action without a cause; it is a pointer to the fact that enemies within are at work. Inasmuch as I am their target they should have come to my house to confront me. I would have been able to pin some of them down in order to get to the root of this. They wouldn’t have gone scot-free. Now, they resulted to destroying my property.
What is the rough estimate of items that perished in the inferno?
It would not be less than N50million.
It was alleged that those who torched the building were not speaking in Yoruba?
I was not at the scene; only those who were would be able to give graphic details. I heard that they came with about six vehicles. I was not at the place when it happened. My aides were also here with me.
Hope no-one got injured in the incident?
My two younger brothers that were around were able to escape.
Have you reported at the station?
I lodged a complaint with the police already. We reported first thing this morning and they came to inspect the premises.
Apart from this, I heard of a controversy linked to Femi Ojodu. I never knew him but he said that in 2009, Baba Adedibu gave an assignment to me. We all know that Baba Adedibu died in 2008. This shows that he is out of his senses. He should be taken for a medical checkup.
Baba Adedibu never gave me any assignment and I am close to him. It is Senator Adewolu (Rashidi) Ladoja whom I am close to and I never betrayed him. As tough as the battle and intrigues that trailed him I never turned my back on him.
I heard that Femi Ojodu alleged that I had a meeting with him in Ibadan in 2009 during election period. I can see clearly that he is mentally sick. When people came to confirm or deny Ojodu’s claim I responded by saying that he should swear with the life of his children if he ever had a meeting with me.
I see that my agitation against the killer herdsmen is being politicised to discredit my personality to get me distressed but their plot would fail. The schemes by the politicians would not stand. All the lies being peddled against me by Femi Ojudu would fail.
I never knew him and they are cooking lies against me. It is until the Fulani men who are killing our people move out that the scores would be settle. And, there is no politician who can induce or pay me for the course that I am running. Since the herdsmen go about perpetrating heinous crimes government never intervened. It is not just happening today. It was my visit that opened the cans of warm.
I needed to go there because it is where I come from. They are my family members. It is the same tribal marks that I am wearing that Dr Aborode who was killed had on his face. I can’t keep mum in the face of oppression and humiliation.
Any politician who has a genuine claim that I was paid to do this should come forth. Nobody is bankrolling me. The simple point that I am making is that there might be peace in Yoruba land. The Fulani herdsmen should not subject us in our own territory. But it is disheartening that fellow Yoruba men would gang up against a just course. To fight me they should have come to me directly.
We learnt that you have a Twitter account on which you pass information?
I don’t have any twitter account and I don’t write on Facebook. Whoever is behind the Twitter account is merely using my name for ulterior motives. I know nothing about that. If you have anything to do with Twitter just be very careful with those hiding under my name to spread falsehood. If someone is interacting with you on Facebook in my name, be careful not to fall victim.
Culled from The Nation
