Ondo communities lament killing of six persons, farm destruction by herdsmen

No fewer than six persons were killed in the last two weeks in the Arimogija and Molege areas of the Ose Local Government Area of Ondo State by gunmen.

Leadership reports that the victims included farmers, traders, and commuters.

A community leader, Mr Owolafe Folorunsho, said the February 2, 2023, attack was triggered by an effort by farmers to repel the continued destruction of their crops by herdsmen.

Owolafe, “The herders have continued to invade our farmlands at night, harvest our crops to feed their cows. On some occasions, they will come during the day, force us to uproot cassava by ourselves at gunpoint, command us to cut them into pieces to feed their cows.

“In order not to take law into our own hands, we reported this act of sabotage to the appropriate authorities who took prompt action to chase them out of the farming areas only for the Fulani herdsmen to come back and attack us with guns, axes and cutlasses and killed our people at night.”

Confirming the incident, the Onimoru of Imoru, Oba Rotimi Obamuwagun, lamented the atrocities of the suspected Fulani herdsmen in the area.

The monarch said the herdsmen destroyed four hectares of cassava farm belonging to one of his subjects who got high-interest rate from a commercial bank to finance the farm.

This was corroborated by the Odibiado of Ijagba, Oba Andrew Ikioya Ilevare, who added that the bandits had resulted to harvesting plantains and bringing them to market to sell.

The executive chairman of the council, Adekunle Dennis, who visited the areas, expressed the concern of the state governor over the security situation in the Ose LGA, saying something would be done to checkmate the excesses of the herdsmen.

While calling on the community leaders and youth organisations to be more security-conscious, he charged them to improve on intelligence gathering that would enable them to give correct and useful information to the security agencies.

He equally advised them to thoroughly profile and search themselves to fish out informants who may be living among them.

Efforts to get the reaction of the Ondo State Police Command proved abortive at the time of filing this report.