In what looks as if a replica of the Aba girls riot of November 1929, women in Ekpoma, Edo kingdom took to the streets on Thursday to protest the alleged killing of a 57 yr-old mom of six, Mrs Margaret Odiamehi. Hell changed into set free while the girls, who had been at the market, learnt that their colleague were raped and murdered in the farm through suspected herdsmen. The murder brings to 6 the quantity of ladies murdered within the place in the closing by way of alleged herdsmen.
The tension because of the state-of-the-art killing in Ekpoma pressured Governor Godwin Obaseki to said his deputy, Philip Shaibu, the country Commissioner of Police, Haliru Gwandu and the nation Director of DSS, Aliru Ibrahim, to the university metropolis to bring the situation underneath manage. Killings related to herdsmen are getting worrisome in Edo as none of the suspects has been arrested by means of the police. girls in numerous communities in Edo North and significant in specially not go to farm alone due to worry of being killed. it is inside this context that you will possibly understand the mood on Wednesday, whilst individuals of the kingdom residence of assembly began the debate on the invoice for a regulation establishing Grazing manipulate enterprise to check the sports of herdsmen inside the nation. The bill subsidized through the lawmaker representing Ovia North East Constituency 11, Mr vibrant Osayande, elicited unanimous condemnation of the activities of herdsmen in Edo by way of the lawmakers, who lamented low meals production across the nation due to the sports of herdsmen.
the majority chief of the residence, Folly Ogedegbe, Deputy Speaker, Elizabeth Ativie, Crosby Eribo, Gani Audi, amongst others, careworn the need for the rapid passage of the bill into law to keep the lives of farmers. In his contribution, Audu asserted: “if you go to my constituency, 90 per cent of my human beings are farmers. And we suffer each day from the sports of these herdsmen. however the established order of this agency will test the activities of those herdsmen”. Igbass (Esan North East Constituency 11), narrated: “we have a business guy who got here in from abroad to invest in agriculture in Edo. He added his entire own family and brought a bit of land along Sapele road, delivered in gadget but after some time some herdsmen invaded his farm and destroyed all he had.
“these days the person has long past returned to Europe. Grazing and ranching are two various things. anywhere in the global nowadays, what we have is ranching. a man who desires to pass into farming need to be prepared to secure an area wherein he or she will be able to do his enterprise. A state of affairs where you operate your personal enterprise to hinder other people’s groups must not be condoned. Grazing as some distance as i am worried is old, it is inhuman and evil and we don’t need grazing in Edo. The herdsmen are evil, they have got come right here to kill and to break. we're worn-out and we will no longer tolerate them. We want to skip a law so that our human beings inside the rural areas will have peace of thoughts in their farms”.
however, less than 24 hours after the bill exceeded the second studying, Mrs Odiamehi became murdered in Ekpoma allegedly through herdsmen. The eldest son of the deceased, Mr Joseph, narrated: “My mom went to the farm in the morning. At about 4pm when she had not strangely now not back, we commenced thinking what came about. We have become scared and i rushed to the police station to file that my mom became missing. The policemen informed me to give them 24 hours. I went home however i used to be agitated. I called my brother that we need to pass and look for her inside the farm. We looked for her and later located her dead body without head within the farm. They raped her and beheaded her and that is the exchange mark of herdsmen who function in our vicinity.
We rushed to name the police and it became after they came that we started searching for her head and we found it somewhere across the farm. The police took the frame to the mortuary. we are devastated because my mom become the breadwinner of the family. I don’t have a process, i've simply been coping with my lifestyles. In reality, we are pressured. simply final year, her (mom) daughter misplaced the husband and my father died years ago and, considering the fact that then, she has been the one shouldering the obligation of the family. My mom became now not sick, she became hale and hearty before she went to the farm. And the worst of all of it is that the herdsmen did no longer handiest kill her, they raped her earlier than beheading her.
“The herdsmen are the ones we see that function in our farms. A ritualists would have taken away the head and could no longer rape her, it's far most effective Fulani herdsmen that operate that way and we have a lot of them in our place. you may consider that together with her age she become raped through those evil those who are right here to smash our human beings. Our hunters went into the bush but we've got now not visible them. whenever they operate this way they disappear but I don’t think we can keep to condone this in our communities. girls are actually frightened of going to the farm, so what are going to do now for a living. that is destabilising and that i don’t recognize how we're going to deal with the state of affairs because she became the breadwinner”.
“Deputy governor Shaibu, who appealed to the protesting women and teens to be calm, recalled that comparable incident passed off at Elele in Etsako West local authorities and Ewu in Esan valuable local government areas of the state. within the identical period, information of herdsmen sacking school pupils from their class rooms also surfaced in Ikpoba Okah nearby authorities place. He, consequently, charged security agents to fish out the suspects. His words: “it's far a completely sad development and we sympathize with you in this. The governor were given the sad information much less than three hours ago and requested me to come without delay. We assure you of presidency’s commitment to eradicating the threat. no matter what we do now, we can not replace the loss, but I pray God to present you the fortitude to undergo the loss. I additionally want to guarantee you that these perpetrators will no longer go unpunished.”
Read More »
