Lawmaker fingers Fulani herdsmen in brutal murder of DELSU staff

The rampaging menace of Fulani herdsmen played out again at a farm in Delta State when a 50-year-old senior staff of Delta State University, was brutally murdered.

Commenting on the incident in a statement, Hon. Evance Ochuko Ivwurie, Member Representing Ethiope East Constituency in the State House of Assembly said the victim was hacked to death in his farm on Friday, March 24th.

He said; “Another of my Constituent, Mr. Sunday Idama, a Senior Staff of the Delta State University, Abraka- Library Department, 50 years with 14 children was brutally murdered by the ravaging Fulani Herdsmen on Friday in his Cassava farmland in Ovre Abraka.”

Continuing, Hon. Ivwurie added that; “I have reported to the whole world that I was briefed by my constituents residing across Ethiope East Mainland; towns/villages and Ethiope East Hinterlands; Ovre-Eku/Abraka/Igun of the sighting by some of them of an unspecified Helicopter said to be dropping supplies in the same Ovre-Eku/Abraka axis.

“Since after my receipt of that brief, five of my Constituents namely Mr. Philip Akpine, Mr.Francis Okotie, Mr. Sunday Couple, Mr. Eyabigun Akpovena and Mr. Sunday Idama have all been slaughtered by this mercenaries; Fulani Herdsmen in their farmlands in Ovre-Abraka which is a safe haven, dwelling and business place for thousands of Fulani Herdsmen and their cattle.

“My people are helplessly susceptible, defenceless and vulnerable to this menace. The Herdsmen escapade and atrocities against my exposed constituents includes killing and kidnapping them, maiming, raping and attacking them.

Read also: Herdsmen in Delta get supplies from helicopter, Delta lawmaker claims

“It is estimated that we have over 2,000 Fulani Herdsmen and over 10,000 cattle in the various parts of the vast deserts- which many people have christened Ethiope East Sambisa Forest.

“I wish to appeal to the security agencies to visit the “Ethiope East Sambisa Forest” and properly investigate the activities of the criminal elements of the herdsmen and bring them to justice,” Hon. Ivwurie’s statement read in full.

In his warning issued last month, Hon. Ivwurie, raised eyebrows over the activities of Fulani herdsmen in the state.

He disclosed during a security meeting with stakeholders at Abraka that an unmarked helicopter was always landing inside the Ovre-Abraka desert of the state where thousands of herdsmen and their cattle reside.

The lawmaker described the desert land across the River Ethiope known as Ovre-Abraka as a time-bomb waiting to explode owing to the activities of herdsmen in the area, whom he said may decide one day to cross the river and attack the community.

Farmers in the south east and now in the south south have in the past year been victims of the activities of herdsmen whose cattle damage crops and farmlands in rural communities which the breeders sometimes illegally and brazenly colonize as grazing grounds.

Aside that the activities of herdsmen in such areas are characterised by incidents of killing, robbery, rape, maiming and kidnapping by the cattle herdsmen who have most sent farmers living in fear, even as some have scampered far away to safety in desperate bids to avoid being brutally killed by the rampaging herdsmen.

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