Igboho: Igangan streets deserted as Oro festival peaks

There is an uneasy calm in Igangan, Ibarapa North local government area of Oyo state.

The development is in compliance with the ongoing Oro Festival, which started about seven days ago in the town.

According to the convener, Igangan Development Advocates (IDA), Oladokun Oladiran, Saturday is the grand finale of the festival, which requires everybody in the town to stay indoors.

The entire streets across the communities were entirely deserted.

When asked if the situation was as a result of fear of attacks by the residents following the crisis that erupted after the departure of Yoruba activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, popularly called Sunday Igboho, who stormed the town on Friday, the IDA convener said the culture of staying indoors is during the festival is not peculiar to the residents but also visitors.

Oladiran said “Things are quiet in Igangan as Oro festival curfew is now ongoing.

“It’s been on for some days now. Today (Saturday) is ‘Ahamo’, meaning indoor.

“All must be indoors. It has been on since the last seven days but today (Saturday) is the peak.

 “All women will be indoors until like 12 tomorrow (Sunday).”

However, when asked about the mood of the people of the town following the visit of Ighoho, the IDA convener lauded the activist calling for extra vigilance and redefined strategic security information in Igangan and Ibarapaland as a whole.

He said the visit has helped to rekindle the hope of freedom among indigenes, adding that no family could boast of unscathed life in the hand of the ever-terrorizing herders.

He accused the Seriki Fulanis, Alhaji Abdulkadir Saliu, of always shielding those he described as criminal elements terrorising the town.

He said: “Year in year, year out, several years under the continuous woes of herdsmen banditry, Igangan’s hope of regaining their peace kept being dimmed until Friday, January 21, 2021 when the whole of Ibarapa land suddenly went agog with renewed strength of reclaiming their land.

“The long-awaited, sought and longed for ray of hope for liberation glimmered in the form of Chief Sunday Adeyemo Igboho.

“Such a massive uproar might never have attended any saga in recent Ibarapa history.

“It was not surprising, for not a single household in Ibarapa North-West LCDA could boast of unscathed life in the hand of the ever-terrorizing herders.

“For several years, farm plundering was their full time business which grew audaciously in leaps and bounds even as the Seriki Saliu ensured that no Fulani was prosecuted even for offenses they were caught pants down perpetrating.

“With no disciplinary measures ever meted out to the now reverential herdsmen, their audacity has leaped in bounds from just grazing upon the sweats of Ibarapa farmers to maiming and lynching any farmer who dare raise a voice in deference to their destructive resolve.

“And as if it would never end, the era of heart-numbing fear that trickled into the very marrow of Igangan started years ago.

“Notorious Fulani criminals increased spates of kidnappings and bloodshed upon the whole of Ibarapaland.”

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