The date May 15 sits heavy in Oyo State's recent memory. That is when the Ahoro-Esinele tragedy struck Oriire Local Government, and by the account of columnist Festus Adedayo, it was far from the last act of violence to follow. More blood has been spilled since, and the pattern is becoming impossible to look away from.
Adedayo's piece, published in Premium Times, opens with a stark declaration: Yorubaland is encircled by terrorists. He goes further, noting that the Nigerian president's own birthplace has not been spared, describing it as a terrorist enclave. These are not throwaway lines. They set the tone for what reads as a deeply frustrated reckoning with the state of security in the southwest and beyond.
The title alone carries a lot of cultural weight. "Iru Ekun" refers to the footprints or trail of a leopard in Yoruba, while "Sòbìà" names the guinea worm, a parasite that burrows slowly and painfully before it is ever seen. The pairing, applied to activist Sunday Igboho, suggests a figure whose presence and politics run deeper and more dangerously than what appears on the surface.
The source excerpt does not reveal the full argument Adedayo builds around Igboho, but the framing is pointed enough to signal that this is a piece wrestling with hard questions about identity, security, and who gets to speak for a people under siege. Whether you agree with his conclusions or not, those questions are not going anywhere.
Originally published by Premium Times.