Farmers in the Ajegunle/Powerline community, in the Akure North local government area of Ondo State have called on Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu and security agencies to intervene in incessant attacks on them by suspected herders.
The farmers, through their representative, Abraham Olowo, alleged that there have been repeated attacks on farmers in the community.
Olowo, who spoke with journalists on Thursday in Akure, said, “the attacks started the past two weeks but the climax of it all is the attack they carried out a few days ago which almost led to the death of one of the farmers in the community. He said the victim was receiving treatment in an emergency unit of a private hospital in the state.
“Up till today (Thursday), the attacks still continue; they always do the incessant attacks at the night and early in the morning, cart away our foods, destroy our farm products, and even machete people to the extent that these people would land in the hospital.
“These nefarious activities are only happening and operating within Ago-Dada to Ago-Oyinbo along the Powerline, they have attacked everybody in the community.
“We are calling on the government to intervene because we cannot run away from the herdsmen. Their intention is to drive the people out of the community and take over the community.
“We are begging the government and the security agencies to come to our aid before it goes out of hand. We know their location within the community. Before, they attacked us occasionally, but now it is every day. These herdsmen will collect our phones, cash, destroy our farm products, and even attack us on our lands.”
“We have been to the headquarters of Amotekun, and Ala Police Division to report officially and they promised that they will come but we have not seen any of them up till now. And we have even started our own vigilante but without government intervention, our aims will not be achieved. We need government attention seriously.
“We don’t know what to do because if we revenge, it might lead to bloodshed and we don’t want that. We want the government to help us.”
