The victim, Mr. Linus Ogheh, a farmer and native of Ebonyi State until he was killed last week resided at Ileyo Camp, an agrarian community near Igbatoro in Akure North Local Government Area of the state.
The Polity gathered that suspected herdsmen, that were searching for their strayed cows due to the exchange of gunshots between them and policemen drafted to the farm of the former Secretary to the Government of Federation (SGF), Chief Olu Falae, had allegedly killed him.
The incident, according to residents of various camps around Igbatoro and who were mostly non indigenes, had scared them from going to their farms for several days because of the fear that the herdsmen would attack them.
The murder of the father of seven, Ogbeh, provoked a protest by the farmers, their wives, children and other stakeholders in the area, who gathered at Ileyo Camp purposely to condemn the damage being caused by grazing of animals in the area.
The protesters, armed with green leaves and placards with inscriptions condemning grazing on their farms and attendant damage to their crops, trooped out with their children to the lonely road chanting anti-herdsmen slogans.
The Bale of Ileyo Igbatoro Camp, Chief Ogunleye Taiwo, while speaking with journalists in Akure yesterday, said 95 per cent of people living in the area are mainly non indigenes comprising the ibo, Agatu, Ebira, Langtang farmers.
“This man that was killed had been living here for over 30 years. Chief Falae’s farm is close to us here. Our people cannot go to farm again because of the fear that the herdsmen would attack them.
“This is the time we should be spraying our cocoa farm with chemicals, we cannot go to farm. This area is the food basket of Akure, the state capital but cattle enter our farms without restrain. We are tired of the menace of the herdsmen.
“The youths in the area had wanted to go and confront the herdsmen, we are the one that had been restraining them because we know what that can cause,” he said.
Similarly, the President Coalition of Non Indigenes Associations and Chairman Agatu Farmers Association, Mr Vincent Adonyi from Benue State, said the menace of herdsmen would worsened the issue of food security if not checked.
“This is June, we do not have much maize. The cassava is not there and other food crops that we used to grow are not there because people were scared from our farms.
“Herdsmen drove some of us away from Benue and Plateau states and now that we are here, the herdsmen had come again, this is disturbing and should be of concern to the government”, he said.
Consequently, Adonyi urged government to empower security agencies to deal with the situation so that the food crises already experienced in the country wouldn’t deteriorate.
Adonyi said it was the police that came to remove the corpse of the killed man and had been deposited at the mortuary, expressing hope that investigation would be carried out on the matter and perpetrators brought to book.
The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr Femi Joseph, confirmed the death of the incident but mentioned that it would be too hasty to conclude on what led to the death of the man or who was responsible.
Joseph, who assured that the police would thoroughly investigate the death, added that autopsy and investigations would reveal the actual cause of the man’s death.
