Ibadan, Nigeria — Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation Afenifere has thrown its weight behind Yoruba activist Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, insisting that he committed no offence in issuing a security ultimatum over rising kidnappings and banditry in parts of Oyo State.
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, Afenifere urged northern groups threatening Igboho to desist, arguing that the activist’s actions were directed not at any ethnic group but at criminal elements responsible for terror, abduction and violence in Yorubaland. The group said calls for the authorities to move against him amount to blackmail because, in its view, he neither acted violently nor breached the law.
The latest controversy followed Igboho’s visit to his hometown in Oke-Ogun, Oyo State, where he reportedly issued a two-hour ultimatum to kidnappers holding a pregnant woman and two other victims, warning that there would be consequences if they were not released. He also warned criminal elements operating under the cover of Fulani identity to stop kidnapping and threatened action against any local collaborators, while assuring peaceful non-indigenes living in the area that they had nothing to fear.
Igboho’s remarks triggered backlash from several northern voices and organisations, including the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and other Fulani groups, who accused him of ethnic profiling and urged President Bola Tinubu and Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde to call him to order. But Afenifere rejected that interpretation, maintaining that the real issue is the worsening insecurity in the South-West and the need to confront those behind abductions, killings and attacks on farming communities.
The organisation said Yorubaland has long been home to people from northern Nigeria living peacefully alongside local communities, but argued that tensions rose after repeated complaints about violent herders, kidnappings and the displacement of villagers. It also linked insecurity in some areas to illegal mining and the activities of armed groups operating in forest corridors across the region.
The exchange adds another layer to the already heated national conversation over self-help security responses, community defence, and the wider push for state police as Nigeria grapples with persistent insecurity across multiple regions.
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