The National Publicity Secretary of pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, has said a former Governor of Lagos State and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, lied when he said that herdsmen had not wreaked havoc in the South West part of the country.
Odumakin, who spoke in reaction to an earlier statement by Tinubu, signed by his spokesman, Tunde Rahman, said herdsmen had in the past attacked a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae, and farmers in parts of the South West.
He listed areas attacked by the herdsmen to include Yewaland in Ogun State, Oke Ogun in Oyo State, Akure in Ondo State and parts of Ekiti State.
He said in the statement on Thursday: “Tinubu has maintained a sinful silence as herdsmen launched vicious attacks on the South-West and other sections of the country with thousands of lives lost in the last three years.
“He can play the ostrich all he wants but we know he was mute when herdsmen kidnapped Chief Olu Falae. He could not find his voice when herders killed people in Yewa, Oke Ogun, Akure, Ekiti and the Middle Belt.
“Neither did I hear a word from Tinubu when herdsmen kidnapped and killed a Permanent Secretary in Osun (where Tinubu and I are from).”
Odumakin said behaved as a federalist when it suited him, adding that cattle herders as businessmen should apply to state governors for land allocation if they were interested in ranching.
He added in the statement: “I do not intend to take issues with him in all the personal attacks and insinuations of disorder of the mind. Why should I when I know that it is chronic abusers of substance that are more prone to suffer from such? Thank God I am not one of them.”
