Suspected Fulani herders have hacked to death 47-year-old farmer Chief Mutairu Oladosu on his tomato farm in Asa Village, Okelade, Ido Local Government Area, Oyo State, the Okelade Okin, Oba Wahab Olabamiji, has confirmed.
Oladosu, who held the traditional title of Otun Balogun of Oluode Okelade, was attacked last Friday while working alongside one of his daughters. The monarch told journalists that three herders invaded the farm; one suspect has been arrested and transferred to the police.
Oba Olabamiji led community leaders to the palace of the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Ladoja, on Monday to plead for urgent intervention, saying residents "can no longer sleep with their two eyes closed."
Oba Ladoja disclosed that he has summoned the Oyo State Commissioner of Police to the palace and was assured that the detained suspect will be prosecuted while a manhunt continues for the remaining two.
The Olubadan's decision to drag the state police chief to the palace over the murder of Mutairu Oladosu signals that rural Oyo is sliding into the same herder-farmer bloodletting that has scarred Plateau, Benue and Nasarawa. When a first-class monarch personally hosts the CP, it means the killings have moved from distant farms to the doorstep of royal power.
Oba Olabamiji's lament that herders "are not only grazing on our farms" but now "a source of threat" points to a shift from crop destruction to targeted elimination of community leaders. Oladosu was no random victim; as Otun Balogun he embodied local authority, making his public slaughter a deliberate warning to other farmers who resist open-grazing.
For families in Ido LGA, the implication is stark: going to the farm has become a potential death sentence, and the traditional ruler admits he had to beg youths not to retaliate. Every planting season now carries the risk of leaving wives widowed and children fatherless, while the promised "justice" hinges on a single suspect in custody.
This killing fits a wider pattern across southern Nigeria where herders' southward drift, squeezed by desertification and armed banditry up north, collides with indigenous farming communities. When royal palaces become emergency security forums, it shows that Abuja's ranching promises and state peace committees have done little to stop the bloodshed.
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