South-East Communities Groan As Herdsmen Take Over Farmlands, Rape Women

Communities in the South-East have lamented the destructive activities of rogue herdsmen on their farms.

They said the situation was becoming worrisome and frightening, Vanguard reports.

In some cases, the  herdsmen even violently attack and kill the farmers if they have the gut to question them, the community leaders claimed.

The crimes are taking place in all parts of the South East: from Abia to Imo; from Anambra to Enugu and Ebonyi, Vanguard reports.

Just recently, the South East Town Unions, ASETU, which operate from the rural communities where the crimes are committed, raised the alarm over the rise in the destructive activities of the herdsmen. 

The President-General of the association, Chief Emeka Diwe, lamented what the rural farmers are going through in the hands of the herdsmen. 

He said, “Our people have died enough. We cried out when the Ozuitem community in the Bende area of Abia State was invaded and attacked by the herdsmen and nobody did anything. People were slaughtered and property destroyed. A month later, another community in the same Abia State, Ndi Okereke Abam, in Arochukwu council, was equally attacked by the herdsmen. Nothing was done. 

“In the early hours of April 6, 2019, the herdsmen attacked farmers’ settlement in Anambra West Council of Anambra State. They set the farmhouses ablaze and killed the men and raped the women they captured, yet nobody came to our rescue. 

“Can we keep beating about the bush while our people are being taken to slaughterhouses day after day? What about the dastardly attack on Umuawa-Ibu community in Okigwe council area of Imo State. In all these cases, we cried to high heavens, petitioned here and there, and complained everywhere, yet the authorities never cared.

“In Enugu, on June 14, 2019, the same herdsmen attacked a commercial bus carrying traders, mainly women returning from the market along Agbani-Ugbawka road in Nkanu East council area and abducted three young women after they had robbed the traders. 

“The story is the same in Ebonyi and Imo States. In Imo State, herdsmen have unleashed terror in Oguta, Ohaji-Egbema and Orlu as well as other parts of Igbo land. And recently, the killing of Ozoemena Iriaka from Umuekpu in the Agwa community in the same Oguta council area was added in the list of casualties of these murderous herdsmen. 

“As I speak to you, there is hardly a herdsman standing trial anywhere in Nigeria for these killings and atrocious acts; hardly can you find one in detention or even one being prosecuted. Our people now feel their lives do not matter anymore.”

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