Minister of Youth and Sports Development Sunday Dare says the herdsmen crisis in Oyo State is a “serious test” of the leadership of Governor Seyi Makinde, Igbere TV reports.

In a statement on Monday following clashes between herders and residents of Ibarapa, Mr Dare urged the governor to be more proactive and decisive in handling the situation.

Makinde had ordered the arrest of persons calling for herders to leave the town including an activist Sunday Adeyemo alias Sunday Igboho whose profile has risen since the herdsmen crisis began.

Dare urged the governor to seek help from states and non-state actors and stop “reacting out of fear that his political status is being damaged”.

“For several months, citizens of Oyo state have watched with increasing concern as the security situation in our beloved state degenerated. Troubling accounts about killings, kidnappings, and herdsmen versus farmers conflicts abound,” he said.

“Like all the people of Oyo State, I expected the Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State to act prudently but with reasonable dispatch to quell the security situation before it got out of hand. We all waited for proactive steps and responses from the state authority certainly in vain.

“Governor Makinde seems to be paralysed by fear regarding this important security situation. This is the first serious test of his leadership of the state.

“Instead of tackling it, he has retreated. His policy has not been proactive enough to resolve the issues so that security of lives will be guaranteed and our people spared the mournings over dead ones. Instead, his policy has been to act as if nothing was happening in forlorn hope that all would simply go away as if it were a bad dream.”