Again, herders kill 6, attack communities in Ondo

Six persons have been reportedly killed in Ondo State following an attack by suspected herdsmen on some communities in the Ose Local Government Area of the state.

Sources gave names of the affected communities as Arimogija and Molege, adding they had been under incessant attacks for the past two weeks.
Among those that were killed were farmers, traders, and travelers in the communities.

It was learned the farmers’ attempts to stop the herders from continuing to wilfully destroy their crops served as the impetus for the attack.

Owolafe Folorunsho, a community leader, alleged that AK-47 and pump action were freely used during the attack.

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

“In order not to take laws into our hands, we reported this activity to the appropriate authority who took prompt action to chase them out of the farming areas only for the Fulanis to come back and attack us with AK-47s, pump action, axes cutlasses and kill our people at night.”

The traditional ruler Onimoru of Imoru, Oba Rotimi Obamuwagun, confirmed the occurrence and bemoaned the brutality of the suspected herders.