Image caption: Rev’d Falade on the hospital bed in Ogbomoso, with his macheted upper arm in bandage
NARROW ESCAPE: Baptist pastor narrates brutal encounter with Bororo bandits
Jeremiah OYELEKE
A clergyman visited recently on his hospital bed by ogbomosoinsightonline.com recounts his hairbreadth escape from the ubiquitous migratory Fulani Bororo bandits
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Rev’d Ezekiel Tunji Ola Falade, an associate pastor with the Peaceway Baptist Church, Aje-Iya area, Ogbomoso, Oyo state, has narrated how he barely slipped out of the jaws of death after he was waylaid and fiercely attacked by suspected Fulani Bororo bandits while returning from Bosunla in the outskirt of Ogbomoso near Ibapon village.
Dateline was Friday, August 2, 2024. The man of God was returning to his home in the city after attending to his private practice in the Bosunla village when he was met with the mishap. “I was coming from the village on my TVX motorcycle, it was in the hours of 7:30pm, 8:00pm,” Rev’d. Falade narrated to ogbomosoinsightonline.com at the hospital where he is receiving treatment.
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“I was approaching Ibapon bridge near Adu junction when the three Fulani men, they were Bororo I was certain, burst into the road, picking me out with their powerfully beaming torches, waving at me to stop. But sensing their intention, I accelerated on the throttle with the hope of scaring them away from the road. They jumped off a bit but they struck me with cutlass or sword. I still struggled to ride on but they hit me again with woods and so I fell from the bike. They rushed at me and ransacked my body. They threw away my Bible and I was mercilessly beaten and brutally macheted but with the last ounce of energy in me I took off on my feet.”
The cleric further recalled, “I was running towards the bush but they gave me a hot chase, then, two of them stopped and mounted the motorcycle why one continued to pursue me. I was earnestly calling on Jesus to help me, I discovered my arm was dangling precariously as I ran but after a while the one pursuing me stopped and I fell to the ground, tired, as that day I was fasting and I had not broken the fasting. I was so tired but with great effort I continued to walk on.
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“Then, I saw another man, and thinking I had run into them again or another band I just managed to shout, ‘just kill me I have been beaten enough.’ But the man was another victim whose motorcycle had also been snatched in the same vicinity. We were hastily walking together but he soon outpaced me because he walked faster, he was not injured. I got tired and fell down. I was saying, ‘Jesus, son of David have mercy on me.’
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“Eventually, I came to safety, but people I saw first who told me they had taken the other victim to the hospital refused to assist me to that level fearing being implicated by security agents but when I told them I am a clergyman they helped me call my people by retrieving my sim from my cutlass-damaged phone. They asked for numbers to call using their phone. That is how I was taken to a hospital. The hospital even wanted to reject me but they accepted to treat me after a policeman who is a member of my church and had just arrived told them he was a police officer.”
He expressed thanks to God for surviving the attack while appealing to Yoruba people who usually employ the services of Fulani Bororo to herd their cattle to desist alleging such Bororo people are the ones commonly engaged in crimes. He though also asserted some Yoruba youths who are lazy are also involved in motorcycle snatching and other crimes while urging government to empower the Amotekun operatives and vigilante groups to bolster their operational capabilities.
Meanwhile, the man now recuperating at a hospital in Idi-Abebe area and who needs financial assistance disclosed some people reported to him they found a motorcycle abandoned in a bush not too far from the area he was attacked, “when they gave me its description and the luggage on it, it fitted my own but had had its gear broken and the bike taken to a police station as they feared they might land in trouble as accomplices.”
The incident was confirmed at the police station by a source.
The Insight reports cases of attacks and farm destructions have remained unabated despite efforts to alleviate the menace including those by Egbe Omo Ogbomoso Parapo Agbaaye whose leadership has been holding consultations with traditional rulers in the zone. It is learnt nothing less than five incidents of killing by the unscrupulous herders had been reported in Ogbomoso area this year alone with security agents often appearing helpless as perpetrators often go scot-free and are never brought to book.
