Tuesday 6 August 2013

Delta: Fresh Clash Looms between Herdsmen, Ika Community

ANOTHER clash between cattle rearers and a community over indiscriminate grazing is imminent in Delta State, despite assurance from the state government and security agents to check the activities of the herdsmen.

While the people of Ogume community in Ndokwa West Local Government Area of the state are still licking their wounds over the killing of no fewer than 10 farmers in a bloody clash with herdsmen in April this year, another community is being threatened and the people are already living in fear over the carnage.

This time, Akumazi community in Ika North-East Local Government Area is being threatened.
As a result, the traditional ruler of the kingdom, Obi Stephen Chukwuyemeze Osagie III, has sent a Save our Souls, SOS, message calling for protection before any harm befalls them.

The Obi, who spoke at his palace, lamented that the farmers were now living in fear as the herdsmen’s cattle graze on their farmlands, destroying their crops. He noted that the few farmers who dared the herdsmen were wounded.

Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan had, sometime ago, while reacting over destruction of farmlands by cattle rearers said: “It is very wrong for cattle rearers to allow their cattle go into people’s farmland to graze and destroy the crops.



The land owners who rent their lands to Fulani cattle rearers to graze their cattles should stop it or they will be punished.”