No fewer than 200 women in Ogba-Egbema-Ndoni Council of Rivers State have staged a protest against the persistent destruction and invasion of their farmlands by herdsmen in the area.
The protesting women who blocked the council headquarters at Omoku alleged that herdsmen have raped, terrorized and killed some of them with knives and guns, demanding that the herdsmen vacate their farmlands immediately.
Speaking on their behalf, women leader of Obirikom in Usomini clan of the council, Isiodu Nkeiruka, lamented the sufferings herders have inflicted on them and their farmlands, alleging that herdsmen have, for the past seven to eight years, regularly invaded their farmlands.
She noted that they had complained to the council chairman, Directorate of State Services (DSS), Joint Task Force (JTF) Area Command, and the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in the area, but all to no avail.
She further lamented a lean cassava harvest due to the activities of herdsmen, stressing that the low yield barely fetches them a basin of garri as cattle usually destroy their cassava and other crops.
Nkeiruka who stated that farming was the mainstay of Ogba natives, expressed frustration that herdsmen activities are negatively impacting the narrative of the people.
“Herdsmen have been going to our farms, destroying our yams and other crops, terrorizing and killing us with knives and guns and raping our women. Enough is enough. Even if you do not eat garri or cassava, your children and mothers do.”
“We plead with the federal and state government to assist us, because we do not want to be tagged lazy, just as President Muhammadu Buhari once tagged Nigerian youths as lazy,” she said.
Responding, chairman of the council, Vincent Job said the menace of herdsmen had been a terrible situation for the area.
He narrated how the herdsmen have destroyed their farm produce as he gave an instance of a girl who was brutally beaten by them.
The council boss appealed that the federal government should come to their aid, as the people do not want to take the laws into their hands.
PHSpectator reports that herdsmen in Rivers State have continue to go about with their cattles despite the government enacting a law which criminalises open grazing in the state.
