No fewer than six persons including farmers, traders, and commuters, were killed in the last two weeks at the Arimogija and Molege axis of Ose local government area of Ondo State, by unknown gunmen.
A community leader, Mr. Owolafe Folorunsho, who narrated their ordeal, disclosed that the February 2, 2023 attack was triggered by an effort by farmers to repel the continued wanton destruction of their crops by herdsmen.
Owolafe stressed that, “the herders have continued to invade our farmlands at night, harvest our crops to feed their cows, and on many occasions, they will come during the day, force us to uproot the cassava by ourselves at gunpoint, command us to cut them into pieces to feed their cows.
“In order not to take laws into our hands, we reported this act of economic sabotage to the appropriate authorities who took prompt action to chase them out of the farming areas only for the Fulani herdsmen to come back and attack us with AK-47, Pump Action, axes, and cutlasses and killed our people at night.”
According to him, in a broad daylight, the terrorists laid an ambush, attacked some traders coming from Akure, and killed all of them before taking their money and setting the car ablaze.
Confirming the incident, the Onimoru of Imoru, Oba Rotimi Obamuwagun, lamented the atrocities of the suspected Fulani herdsmen in the area.
Expressing his dismay about the criminal activities of the suspected herdsmen in his domain, the monarch narrated how Fulanis destroyed four hectares of cassava farm belonging to one of his subjects who obtained with high-interest rate from a commercial bank to finance the farm.
This was corroborated by the Odibiado of Ijagba, Oba Andrew Ikioya Ilevare, who added that the bandits have now resulted in harvesting plantains and bringing them to market to sell.
The royal fathers, who queried why should the federal government allow the attackers to go about with AK-47 rifles and other dangerous weapons to freely terrorise innocent people, praised the Governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu for the establishment of the South-West Security Network popularly known as Amotekun, to checkmate the excesses of the herders, especially in the area.
Visiting the troubled villages to commiserate with the families of the victims, the executive chairman of the local government, Prince Adekunle Dennis, expressed the worries and concerns of the State governor over the security situation in Ose LGA, saying something will be done urgently to checkmate the excesses of the suspected herdsmen.
The local government council boss said that he was already meeting with the relevant authorities and stakeholders to redesign the security architecture of all the flashpoints to nip the security challenges in the bud.
While calling on the community leaders and youth organisations to be more security-conscious, he charged them to improve on intelligence gathering that will enable them to give correct and useful information to the security agencies as government cannot do it all alone.
He equally advised them to thoroughly profile and search themselves to fish out informants who may be living among them.
While commending the security agencies especially the Army, the Police, DSS, and Amotekun Corps for a job well done, the chairman said their timely intervention and prompt actions prevented the terrorists from wiping the people of Arimogija from the surface of the earth.
He charged them to intensify efforts to recover the four camps, Molege, Ugboruwen, Elerinta, and Adedigba from the terrorists.
Efforts to get the reaction of the Public Relations Officer of the Ondo State Police Command proved abortive at the time of filing this report.
