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… Community Urges Govt to Beef up Security
By Young E. Freeborn, Warri
A farmer (name withheld) and her four children recently escaped death at a farm in Uwheru town, Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State.
According to the report, the farmer and her kids went to harvest groundnuts and peppers when they were suddenly attacked by unknown gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen that have been allegedly terrorizing and killing for some years now.
Speaking on the incidence during a visit by our correspondent, a prominent traditional chief in the community who didn’t want his name in print said, “The issue of insecurity in this our community is becoming alarming every day. We were just told yesterday that God saved one of our women and her four children from sudden attack by unknown gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen.
“The woman in question and her four children went to the farm to harvest groundnuts and peppers. On getting there, she saw these four hefty men with guns, hung on their shoulders, harvesting the groundnuts into their bags. Immediately, the woman asked about their identity from afar, they got up and started pursuing the woman and her children. It was just the grace of God that covered them. They managed to get home unhurt.”
“As a kingdom, I believe Uwheru has shouted enough for both the federal and Delta State governments to come to our aid. The way we are being treated on this issue sounds as if we are not citizens of this country at all. What the entire Uwheru kingdom especially Ohoror and Agadama communities have experienced in terms of human lives lost and huge financial loss, are well enough for the government to attend to our needs and desires.
“What our people are passing through on daily basis, especially farmers in the hands of these alleged Fulani herdsmen, are enough for the federal and state ministries of agriculture and natural resources to give us agro loans to support our farming business. “In the same way too, we also expected the Federal Emergency Management Commission to come to our rescue by providing us with palliatives and other social security programmes to alleviate the pains and problems of our people. In all these, our leaders have written severally to the government, yet we are still where we are three years ago. It’s very devastating to us,” he said.
Also, another notable farmer in the community appealed to the Delta State government to come to the aid of farmers in Uwheru kingdom, as he said the activities of the terrorists in the land are capable of reducing their annual agricultural production, thereby putting them in huge debts.
He however admonished the state government to immediately set up community security officers, different from the local vigilante groups, as these security groups were closer to the people than the police.
However, all efforts to speak to the president-general of Uwheru kingdom, Chief Cassidy Akpedafe, over the incidence proved abortive as at the time of filing this report.
