Some residents of Ogun State have raised alarm over the influx of Fulani herdsmen from Oyo State.
The residents of Imeko Afon Local Government Area of Ogun State, in a statement signed by some of their leaders, said the herdsmen are believed to be those expelled from Oyo State.
PREMIUM TIMES reported how a farmer identified as Dele Olowoniyi, was killed on his farm in the area on Sunday.
Sources said the deceased was found dead with machete cuts in his neck and other parts of his body after the invasion of the village by some herdsmen.
The incident was confirmed by Ogun State Police Command Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, but said he was unsure whether it was carried out by herdsmen.
The leaders of Imeko Afon Local Government Area of Ogun, however, said in a statement that famine is looming in their axis because the local government shares a border with Igangan where some herdsmen were recently evicted.
The statement was jointly signed by leaders of Southern Youth Assembly of Nigeria, Abdulakeem Mulero; National Youth Council of Nigeria, Saheed Oyeleye; Federation of Imeko-Afon Local Government Student Union, Adebia Adegoke and The Patriots, Imeko-Afon Local Government, Abel Babatunde.
The statement was titled “An SOS on incessant killings, destruction of property and laying siege by killer herdsmen in Imeko-Afon Local Government Area, Ogun State”.
Speaking on Mr Olowoniyi’s death, the groups said “Late Dele Olowoniyi, a farmer in his late 30s, was sleeping outside his house to enjoy the midnight breeze, having complained of heat to his wife.
“He was rounded-up by the hoodlums who slaughtered him in a barbaric manner. They thereafter fled to Iwoye, a neighboring town in the same Imeko/Afon Local Government. This was according to an eyewitness who was peeping from a nearby bush.
“On the 2nd of January, 2021, Alhaja Serifat Abiola-Adisa, a native of Imeko, was kidnapped in her filling station at Igboora, Oyo State. The kidnappers shooting in their usual manner abducted the business woman and later killed her at a few distance away from her filling station.”
They said the influx of herdsmen shows that “there is palpability of famine in an area known to be one of the food baskets of the state”.
This newspaper on Tuesday morning reached out to police spokesperson, Mr Oyeyemi, on the issues raised by the residents but he did not respond to his calls and text messages.
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