Gunmen Kill Six in Ondo Communities
Fidelis David in Akure
No fewer than six farmers, traders and passengers have been gruesomely murdered at Arimogija and Molege axis of Ose Local Government Area of Ondo state in the last two weeks.
THISDAY gathered that the recent attack was triggered by effort by farmers to repel the continued wanton destruction of their crops by the herdsmen.
It was also learnt that many houses, cars and motorcycles were burnt during the attack while the families of the victims killed some cows to fight back.
A community leader, Mr. Owolafe Folorunsho, while narrating the incident said: “The herders have continued to invade our farmlands at night, harvest our crops to feed their cows and in many occasions, they will come during the day, forced us to uproot the cassava by ourselves at gunpoint, command us to cut them into pieces to feed their cows.”
“In order not to take laws into our hands, we reported this act of economic sabotage to the appropriate authority who took prompt action to chase them out of the farming areas only for the Fulanis to come back and attacked us with AK-47, pump action, axes and cutlasses and killed our people at night”.
According to him, in a broad daylight, the terrorists laid ambush, attacked some traders coming from Akure and killed all the occupants before taking their money and set the car ablaze.
Also, the Onimoru of Imoru, Oba Rotimi Obamuwagun lamented the atrocities of the herdsmen in the area, expressing his disgust about the criminal activities of the herders.
The monarch narrated how herdsmen completely destroyed four hectres of cassava farm belonging to one of his subject who borrowed money with high interest rate from a commercial bank to finance the farm.
This was corroborated by the Odibiado of Ijagba, Oba Andrew Ikioya Ilevare, adding that the bandits have now resulted to harvesting plantains and bring them to market to sell.
The royal fathers who queried why federal government would allow herdsmen to go about with AK-47 rifles to terrorise innocent people, commended Governor of Ondo state, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu SAN for the establishment of the South-west Security Network popularly known as Amotekun to checkmate the excesses of the herders especially in the area.
The Chairman of the local government, Prince Adekunle Dennis, expressed worries and concern of Governor Akeredolu over the security situation in Ose saying something will be done urgently to checkmate the excesses of the herdsmen.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer PPRO in the state, Mrs Funmilayo Odunlami-Omisayan said men of the command have been deployed to the area to maintain law and order.
