• As Igbo youths blows hot, gives 48 hours quit notice
From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
Herdsmen have invaded some communities in Imo State with their cows destroying huge amount of edible farm products.
The communities at the mercy of the herdsmen according to leaders from the areas are Obosa, Assa community in the Ohaji/ Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State,Ndegwu, Orogwe and Amakohia -Ubi, in Owerri West council area of the State.
Indigenes of these communities who are predominantly farmers, have pleaded with the State governor, Hope Uzodimma, and the Commissioner of Police in the state, Muhammed Berde, to come to their rescue.
According to the indigenes,the herdsmen have been occupying their farmlands since March and lamented that they have lost a lot of farm produce to the herders.
The chairman of Obosa ,Assa Community Security Committee, Monday Oparaji, a retired police officer, said the herders had increased tension in the community with their continuous occupation of their farmlands.
He called on the government to order the herders to vacate their farmlands and stop intimidating their wives and daughters.
Similarly, the President General of Ndegwu community, Ozichukwu Iroegbulam has sent a passionate appeal to the State governor to intervene before the matter gets out of hand.
“We are begging His Excellency to please come to our rescue and take care of this situation before it becomes a herders and farmers clash.
“Enough is a enough, the commissioner of police should quickly come to our aide,a lot of our crops are being damaged and our women are afraid to go to their farms, we do not want to take the laws into our own hands”. Iroegbulam lamented.
Meanwhile, Igbo youths under the aegis of the Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL) have given a 48 hours ultimatum to the herdsmen to vacate the affected communities.
President General of the Igbo youth group,Goodluck Ibem who disclosed this in a statement he issued to newsmen at the weekend also warned against Open Grazing In the South East. He regretted that their action has brought untold hardship and famine in most part of the South East.
Ibem said “The issue of open grazing have been ban along time and anyone or group of persons still involved in such outdated practice is on a wicked mission of taking the ancestral lands of the community they are staying.
“The cattle they are moving around with is just a smokescreen to cover their real wicked intentions.
“What are those terrorists parading as Fulani herdsmen doing with AK47 riffle and other dangerous weapons if not to kill, rape and sack the community they are staying. This madness must stop forthwith.
“We demand that the Department of State Security,DSS, should immediately arrest those terrorists with AK47 riffles parading as Fulani herdsmen in these communities and we demand for payment of damages for crops and farmlands destroyed by those cows.
“We give those terrorists parading as Fulani herdsmen 48 hours to vacate the communities immediately and never try or think to come back.
“We warn that this should be the last time we will hear such news that some herdsmen have taken over a community in Igboland. Enough said”.