By Dapo Akinrefon

AN advocacy group, Yoruba KO’YA Movement, said it will collaborate with the farmers, hunters associations and local vigilante groups to begin a surveillance sweep of the old Oyo National Park area to forestall infiltration and attack from herdsmen attacks.

Speaking with newsmen, the co-founder of Yoruba KO’YA, Otunba Deji Osibogun made this known amid reports of occupation and criminal atrocities by strange people in the Old Oyo National Park and Forest Reserve in Oke Ogun area of Oyo State.

Osibogun said the safety of Yoruba land is the responsibility of all indigenes and residents, stressing that they cannot afford to be negligent in view of the incursion and devastation of the North East and Middle Belt communities by terrorists and criminal elements.

He said the news of the incessant killing of people and kidnapping and raping of women has become worrisome to Yoruba, saying “we need to act fast before they turn the Old Oyo National Park into another Sambisa. In fact, we learned that they are trying to turn the place into Sambisa forest with the wave of robberies, kidnapping, and killing.”

He revealed that Yoruba KO’YA in conjunction with farmers, hunters associations, and local vigilante groups are to begin a surveillance sweep of the affected area immediately to safeguard Yoruba land from invasion.

He, however, noted that local herdsmen, who have been living in the largely agrarian area, have nothing to fear.