As kidnappers, hoodlums and killers take over farms in many parts of Nigeria including the Niger Delta region where herdsmen and their cattle are causing havoc, ravaging farmlands and crops thereby shooting up prices of food items in the country, the case is different in Elele in Rivers State.
Mike Elechi, a Knight of Good Shepherd and former permanent secretary who ventured into farming and manufacturing, said in Elele, Ikwere Local Government Area Rivers State, where his farms are located life was normal, free from insecurity.
He said that what was happening in the area was not insecurity but cultism and that the influx of cultists from other places into Elele has made the town to become a breeding ground for cultism.
According to him, “Elele has been peaceful but is only when people leave their places they empty into Elele so it is a breeding ground now for cultism, these boys they call Degbam and Dewell, that’s the only problem, but for now it is not affecting our farms and farmers; the farmers are well protected.
“You see these surroundings- Egbeda, Oguduga Omerenelu, Umuanwa and Ubima are food producing areas, when these surroundings were affected women did not go to farms again.”
He went on “these cultists are not only in their places, some have emptied into Elele like refugees and that is what we are trying to curtail, not only by the government but the chiefs and the elders in general talking to their children against cultism and crime”.
Elechi, however, has commended the state governor, Nyesom Wike, for his efforts to ensure that lives and property in the town are secured.
When asked if there was a plan to invite the police to check cultism, he said that the community policing would not solve the problem of cultism but “it should be parental training and advice”.
SABY ELEMBA, Owerri
