The Olujare of Ijare, Ondo State, Oba Adegbamigbe Fagbemigun, has spoken on the incident of the 36 cows killed by lightning in a forest in the town.
He said the forest was a sacred one that no one dared desecrate.
According to Oba Fagbemigun, he is the only person (as the king) allowed to go to the hills where herders took their cows.
He thus noted that the lightning was a response from the gods of the land who must have been irked by the intrusion.
“Even myself, I go there only once,” Oba Fagbemigun said in an interview on Channels Television on Tuesday.
Other indigenes said the herding into the forest was embarrassing and as soon as the lightning stuck, they knew something must be wrong in the sacred realm.
A leader of the herders in the area, Mr Abubakar, expressed sadness at the loss of the cows.
He said the king only told them ‘Sorry’ when they went to inform him about the development.
Abubakar, however, noted that he and his people had left all to God.
Meanwhile, Oba Fagbemigun said noted that proper sacrifices would be done to appease the gods.
Earlier, the traditional ruler had spoken through his Second-in-Command, Chief Wemimo Olaniran, who said the herdsmen had initially been warned to steer clear of the hilltop.
Olaniran was quoted as saying:
“The herdsmen had been destroying our farmland for a very long time, leading to confrontations on many occasions. We have also warned against their cows going to the sacred hill, but they won’t listen.
“We were there this morning(yesterday) and we saw about 36 cows dead, besides the ones inside the bush. It has happened and there is nothing we can do. We regard it as the act of God, which nobody can be query.”
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“Those cows would remain there and rot because nobody must touch them, otherwise there would be problem.”
