The killing of a 64-year-old farmer Linus Ogbee, by herdsmen in Ilion Camp, Igbatoro in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State has created fear among the residents of the community as farmers no longer go farm any more over fear of been killed.
Inside Sources gathered that the Late Ogbee went to his farm on the said day and could not return until his family members who went in search of their father had to discover his lifeless body in the bush riddled with gunshots.
It was gathered penultimate week that the herdsmen engaged in gun battle with the policemen who were deployed to the farm to dislodge them from the farm of the former Secretary to the Government of the federation Chief Olu Falae in which many cows were said to have been killed.
Sources disclosed that the attack on Ogle might have been as a result of the incident at Falae’s farm which is just few distance from the camp.
Oba Adanri Akinsehinde the traditional ruler of Igbatoro while briefing Journalists on the death of the farmer, said fear had gripped the people of the community as the herdsmen are still around and preventing them from accessing their farmlands. He appealed to the security operatives to help flush out the herdsmen, who have prevented the people from going to farms, which have equally been destroyed.
The Baale of Ileyo community, Chief Taiwo Ogunleye also said the “mere sighting of the herdsmen in the farm had created fears in the heart of the people of the community, who have remained indoors since the incident occurred.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the non-indigenes in the community, Vincent Adoyi, who disclose that 90 percent of the people in the affected community are Agatus and Ebiras appealed to the governors of Ebonyi, Enugu and Benue states to enter into talks with their Ondo state counterpart on the harassment by herdsmen in the community.
Adoyi while speaking to Journalists said “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 we were scared off our farms. Herdsmen drove some of us away from Benue and Plateau states and now that we are here, the herdsmen have come again. This is disturbing and should be of concern to the government”
