Edo communities protest herdsmen attacks, barricade highway

At least 15 communities and several Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Edo State led by the state’s former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Osagie Obayuwana, on Wednesday, barricaded the Lagos-Benin highway for hours to protest attacks by herdsmen.

The protesters lamented that the activities of the herdsmen had led to killings, rape, kidnappings, destruction of farm produce and forceful evictions of indigenous people from their ancestral homes.

According to the protesters, some of the affected communities are Odiguetue, Afintebe, Igolo, Okokuo, Abumwenre I and II, Obarenren, Uhiere and Uyimo I and II.

Obayuwana, who addressed journalists on behalf of the protesters, said they were worried by the crisis orchestrated by armed herdsmen in the communities.

He said: “We want the whole world to know the experience our people have been having for quite some time now.

“We are zeroing it on Ovia North East communities. About 15 communities have been under siege for some years. Farmers have been prevented from going to their farms, another planting season is going away, they have been sentenced to hunger and this has an implication for the larger society.

“It is one of the reasons the price of food is rising beyond the reach of even those in the middle class.

READ ALSO: Suspected herdsmen attack Edo communities, kill seven

“So far, we have not seen a serious efforts to address this issue. Our people have gone to various offices both the legislative arms and even traditional quarters and nothing seems to be coming out.

“We are concerned that what had been happening in Benue and Plateau States will be coming to the shore of Edo State now where armed herdsmen drive people from communities, change the names of the communities and start to occupy the houses, we don’t want that.”

The Edo State Commissioner of Police, Abutu Yaro, appealed to the protesters to remove the barricades on the highway for free flow of traffic.

Yaro, who was represented at the gathering by the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations, James Chu, assured the people that the police had put machineries in place to check the excesses of herdsmen in the various communities in the state.

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