Following persistent clashes between herders and farmers in Delta State, an ethnic group in the state has asked herdsmen to immediately leave a community in the area.
Urhobo Progressive Union, said the recent killings in Uwheru, Ughelli North of Delta State, would no longer be tolerated.
It was reported that fourteen people were feared killed in February when suspected armed herdsmen invaded Uwheru with at least 86 farmers killed in herdsmen-related attacks in the past 12 years.
“The Urhobo Progressive Union (UPU) demands that these killer herdsmen immediately leave Uwheru Kingdom, and the entire Urhobo land,” the president of the group, Moses Taiga, said during a condolence visit to Uwheru on March 5.
Mr Taiga said no words could compensate the people of Uwheru for their losses.
“Words cannot fill the vacuum in your lives caused by the death of your loved ones that have turned you into widows, made you fatherless, orphans, and, possibly, left some without heirs,” Mr Taiga said.
“It is so heart-rending that these senseless massacres of defenseless citizens of the Urhobo Nation by suspected Fulani herdsmen took place without provocation, and while our sons were legitimately engaged on their farmlands, for food and day-to-day living. This is highly condemnable.
“Our ancestral lands, farms, forests and agricultural resources must be free from these hostile and vicious herdsmen.
“The continued presence of these killer herdsmen greatly hampers the productivity and profitability of our people and farmlands. The consequences of these on the peace, social cohesion, market stability, local economic survival and food security of the Urhobo Nation are negative and beyond comprehension,” he said.
The group called for a permanent military presence in Uwheru to prevent further killing and called for the Delta State Government and lawmakers to enact anti-grazing law in the state.
The group urged President Muhammadu Buhari to rise up to the challenge and stop the killings in the state.
“The Federal Government, led by President Muhammadu Buhari, must muster the moral, political and constitutional will in stopping the heinous activities of killer herdsmen in Urhoboland.
“The menace is a huge obstacle to the peace, unity and sovereignty of the Nigerian Nation. The Urhobo People are law-abiding, but our patience is fast waning. It is the duty of the Federal Government of Nigeria to protect the lives and properties of every citizen of this great Nation. Mr President must act now, lest anarchy reigns,” it said.
The Uwheru Kingdom in reaction to the killings had placed a ban on the sale and consumption of beef to protest attacks on their people by herders. Most of the beef consumed in Nigeria are from nomadic Fulani herdsmen.
The Uwheru Kingdom had also decided that the herdsmen should be expelled from the communities.
