Angry women in their thousands, mainly rural women, surged into major roads in Uromi in Esan Local Government Area of Edo state, protesting against killer herdsmen and demanding that they vacate Uromiland and its environs.
The women lamented that the cattle of the herdsmen graze daily on their farms, saying the animals not only gorge themselves on the farm crops but also trample others down while the herders abuse, maim and even kill whoever dares to challenge their destructive activities.
They accused the herders of being responsible for the violence, killings, rape and kidnappings in the area.
Some of the women said they can no longer go to their farms for fear of being raped or killed by herders who take their cows to graze on crops.
According to them, the herders should vacate Uromiland for peace to reign.
However, governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo state had in the past, admonished farmers and residents of the State not be scared out of their farms by activities of some criminals among nomadic herdsmen.
Obaseki, who gave the advice at a symposium organized by the Correspondent Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Edo State Council, during his first tenure, however declared that not all herders are killers.
The Daily Crucible recalls that the said symposium was titled: “Sustainable Agriculture as a Panacea to Herdsmen Attack on Arable Crop Farmers in Nigeria.”
The governor was represented at the time by the Special Adviser on Food Security and Agriculture, Mr. Joe Okoje.
The governor also did set up a 7-man committee which includes Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) and DSS in each of the 18 local government areas of the State to address the menace.
His administration equally stepped up plans to address the menace of herdsmen/farmers clash through banning of night crazing and arms-carrying by herdsmen in the State.
“Not all herdsmen are killers. Some of them are doing genuine business. We should not allow the bad herdsmen’s activities scare us from our farms.
“In every society, you have the good, bad and ugly; and there have always been Fulani herdsmen since we were kids. That is what we are seeing now,” Obaseki had said then .
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