With about 28 lives already lost as a result of reprisal attacks by herdsmen on some Ogun villages, many residents of the affected communities have resorted to taking refuge in neighbouring Benin Republic.
No fewer than 28 lives have been lost in various communities in Yewa North Local Government Area, Ogun State in the last one week or thereabout as a result of deadly attacks believed to have been carried out by herdsmen. The attacks and the resultant deaths were in spite of repeated assurances of protection by the state government and security agencies.
Hostilities between herdsmen and residents of about 29 agrarian communities inside the aforementioned a part of Ogun State dates returned to as a ways as 15 years. The affected villages had been attacked nowadays via terror herdsmen who were said to have camped at Eggua, a neighbouring city from in which they moved with their hordes of cattle, ravaging farmlands within the Ketu-Yewa communities, which percentage borders with the Republic of Benin.
The villages encompass Ateru, Moro, Ologun, Agbon-Ojodu, Asa, Igbota, Ogunba-Aiyetoro, Oke-Odo, Ibore, Gbokoto, Iselu, Ijale, Ohunbe, Igbeme, Owode-Ketu, Igan-Alade, Lashilo, Oja Odan, Ijoun, Ateru, Moro, Ologun, Iyana Meta, Igbooro, Egbeda and Kuse, amongst others.
The armed herdsmen, who usually lead their flock on the lookout for pastures because of the wealthy flora within the Ketu-speaking villages, have additionally been fingered within the destruction of coins crops belonging to the native farmers as well as killings and raping of ladies who're more often than not natives of the groups.
The face-off peaked past due ultimate year when the residents averted the herders from grazing and banished them from the groups.
The Nation had exclusively reported how some soldiers connected to 35 Artillery Brigade, Alamala, Abeokuta, later escorted the herders to the villages and openly flogged citizens for rejecting them.
In a bid to discountenance the record, the infantrymen once more visited the groups per week after the story become published asking the victims to recant, however the brutalised citizens refused.
Chronicle of assaults
Investigation carried out via our correspondent revealed that in the remaining couple of days, a number of the villages stated inside the file had been raided and destroyed by the herdsmen.
The well-coordinated attacks began with the killing of a farmer, Dele Owoniyi by suspected herders on February 7 at Oha village in Imeko place round 1 am. Several buildings and farmlands were destroyed with the aid of the hoodlums.
It became stated that the herders, who had been armed with weapons and machetes, immediately left for Iwoye-Ketu after carrying out the assault. Four days later, two individuals were allegedly killed on Thursday, February 11 by using herdsmen who stormed Owode-Ketu village.
The victims – Isiaka Apesin and Adebayo Oguntosin, amongst other tourists, were said to had been ambushed through the herders along Owode Ketu-Ijoun axis, who bolted into a close-by wooded area after killing the villagers.
The assault, in line with resources, changed into done with the aid of the herders round 5 am. It become learnt that the our bodies of the victims have been evacuated from the scene of the assault by way of guys of Eggua Police Division.
The subsequent day, Friday February 12, Imotto Orile witnessed the trend of the pastoralists who shot one resident lifeless and hacked some other one to dying. Same day, within the dead of the night, the herders took their bloody attack on innocent residents to Orile-Igbooro, in which they killed six villagers and set houses and motors ablaze, while about 15 villagers, together with kids, sustained varying stages of gunshot wounds.
Three farmers had been stated to had been killed on Sunday, February 14 when herdsmen stormed Agbon-Ojodu village rapidly after the state’s Commissioner of Police, Mr. Edward Ajogun, visited the region.
The police commissioner, who visited some places in the stricken areas, consisting of the palace of the Olu of Ilaro and paramount ruler of Yewaland, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle, had promised adequate security of lives and assets. But a few minutes after commissioner and his team left the region, the suspected herdsmen struck and killed three farmers.
Also in the dead of the night time on Sunday, February 14, the herders struck at Ibeku and Asa villages (the identical groups wherein soldiers escorted herders to brutalise citizens for rejecting herdsmen on December 19 last 12 months, killing six men and women, including one Kehinde Gbadamosi whose frame became set ablaze.
According to assets, the hoodlums had dragged Gbadamosi, an indigene of Oyo State, out of his house and killed him before they threw his frame lower back into the residence and razed the constructing.
On Monday, February 15, they moved to Ijaka-Oke and Ijaka-Isale in wide daytime and started out taking pictures at something in sight. By the time the smoke from their weapons receded, 8 villagers were dispatched into early graves at the same time as extra than sixteen commercial motorcycles were set ablaze.
By the nighttime of the same day, they moved to Oke-Akanni and Oke-Imala villages in Ayetoro wherein an unspecified variety of citizens have been killed and homes set ablaze.
The attacks took place little while after Governor Dapo Abiodun visited Oja Odan and different groups inside the place with individuals of his cupboard and heads of safety organizations for on-the spot-assessment and confident the villagers of their safety with the deployment of a unique police squad to address the herders.
The governor said: “The delegation I sent advised me what they noticed. They stated plenty of things took place, and as they had been giving the file of what they saw, we heard that another assault befell.
“I called a safety assembly this morning. And earlier than the day prior to this, I had installation a mission pressure and purchased new motors and bikes for Yewaland safety. The project force includes police, squaddies, civil defence corps and hunters to assist us in terms of security on your place.
“Tomorrow, by means of God’s grace, all the new motors and bikes can be released. The task force may be stationed right here; they will no longer only patrol your regions and cross lower back to Abeokuta,” he confident the people.
Abiodun also promised to foot the sanatorium bills of folks that were injured by using herdsmen, pledging to help people who lost their belongings for the duration of the assault by using cushioning the effect of the loss.
In the early hours of Wednesday, February 17, the herders over again struck at Ilogun Orile village in which they have been stated to have killed unspecified number of citizens.
Villagers flee to Benin Republic for safety
Prompted by using the spate of assaults, many villagers from the affected areas have deserted their houses. Some of the affected villages consist of Agbon-Ojodu, Moro, Asa, and Ibeku.
When The Nation visited the area all through the week, citizens had been seen moving out in droves for worry of another round of assault. At Asa, the ruins of the bloody attack stared one inside the face as some of the residents who got here out of hiding on sighting our correspondent lamented their woes.
Some bullet cartridges allegedly belonging to the herders littered the floor.
A man was sighted transferring his family on his motorbike out of the village. The man, who requested now not to be named, stated he changed into moving his own family into protection at an undisclosed community in neighbouring Republic of Benin.
He said: “I best escaped demise via a whisker. But for Providence, I might have been useless by now. I don’t want to push my good fortune too a ways, so I have determined to relocate my spouse and youngsters to a village inside the Republic of Benin where herdsmen are not allowed to do open grazing.
”Even if I stay back right here, there may be not anything to stay on again. My farmland has been destroyed by those marauding herders. I am satisfied that I am leaving with my existence intact.”
A villager stated the herders launched into a capturing spree as quickly as they stormed the network in a commando-like style, killing human beings and destroying homes really worth thousands and thousands of naira.
He stated: “After killing our humans, they broke into residential buildings, stole their assets and looted stores. They raided a smartphone keep, carted away numerous highly-priced phones and set the store ablaze. A lot of our human beings have left for villages in Benin Republic for worry of being subjected to some other attack by means of the senseless herdsmen.
”They introduced out Gbadamosi aka Big Daddy from his residence and killed him before setting his body ablaze. As you could see, his massive body has end up charred from the fire.”
Monarchs, lawmakers, residents lament
Lamenting the development, the Olu of Ilaro and Paramount ruler of Yewaland, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle, raised the alarm on February thirteen that armed herdsmen have been plotting to assault key communities in Yewa location.
Oba Olugbenle stated the plan of the armed herders was to maintain the centered villages down in terror as that they had executed in remote villages inside the last one week.
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