The Arewa Consultative Forum and the Northern Elders Forum have warned that Nigeria risks sliding into anarchy if the Federal Government fails to control Yoruba Nation agitator Sunday Adeyemo (aka Sunday Igboho) over his reported ultimatum to Fulani leaders in Oyo State following the abduction of a pregnant woman and her relatives.
The groups, alongside several Fulani associations, accused Igboho of ethnic profiling and cautioned that attempts to hold an entire ethnic group responsible for the actions of suspected criminals could inflame tensions, provoke reprisals, and undermine national unity.
Igboho, on Monday, defended his move, adding that his advocacy for effective security of the South-West was not targeted at any ethnic nationality but rather at criminal elements, who are perpetrating abduction, killings, banditry, and other vices.
The warnings and Igboho’s reaction came as the Oyo State police command and the Oorelope Local Government chairman dismissed reports that the abducted woman, Mrs. Kuburat Omowumi, her son, and other relatives had regained their freedom, insisting that they remained in captivity and that rescue efforts were ongoing.
The controversy followed a viral video in which Igboho reportedly issued a two-hour ultimatum to Fulani leaders in the Igboho community, Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State, demanding the release of the abducted victims.
In the video, Igboho accused unnamed Fulani men of engaging in kidnappings in the area, alleging that the victims were being held in a forest location within the community.
The National Publicity Secretary of the Arewa Consultative Forum, Prof. Tukur Muhammad-Baba, on Sunday, described the ultimatum given to the ethnic group as unconstitutional, dangerous, and capable of worsening the country’s security challenges.
According to him, the federal government, security agencies, traditional rulers, and religious leaders must act quickly to prevent the situation from escalating.
“It is, therefore, the duty of the state, security agencies, community leaders, religious clergy, etc., to call him to order and to make it clear that ethnic profiling is a many-sided sword, a recipe for anarchy, and an aberration in the modern world,” Muhammad-Baba told The PUNCH.
The ACF spokesman argued that the ultimatum unfairly portrayed all Fulani people as accomplices in crimes allegedly committed by a few individuals.
“The ultimatum is condemnable as it presumes the specific kidnappers represent the whole Fulani group without exception,” he said.
Muhammad-Baba noted that there was no evidence establishing the ethnic identity of the abductors, stressing that kidnapping had evolved into a criminal enterprise involving people from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds.
“It is not clear how he has concluded that the kidnappers are of the Fulani ethnic group, when we know that the criminal enterprise that kidnapping has evolved into involves all manner of people irrespective of social identities—ethnicity, religion, gender, etc.
“Wholesale association of kidnapping with all Fulani ethnic people is clearly counterintuitive. Plainly, it is counterproductive to assume Fulani people in this location and everywhere else should be held responsible for the activities of criminal elements from among them.”
