Farmers count losses to herdsmen attack in Edo community

Following herdsmen attacks and killings in Ugo Community in Orhionmwon Council of Edo State recently, residents of the community have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari, the state government and security agencies to intervene and stop the carnage.

While counting their losses in the mayhem, a farmer in the community, Michael Eghaghe, said the herders also killed several farmers at Ugo Community and set their farm produce ablaze.

Narrating his ordeal to The Guardian in Benin City, Eghaghe said the herdsmen have been grazing on his farm since 2017, adding that he planted cocoa, cassava, pineapples and plantains on the 64 hectares farmland.

He said a more frustrating experience is the fact that the herdsmen grazed their cattle on every section of the farm, particularly where plantain, pineapple, cocoa, cassava and matured cocoa trees were grown, while they set some other sections of the farmland ablaze.

According to him, he started taking record of the destruction of his farmland since 2018, as the herdsmen set his plantain and cocoa plantation on fire.

“They bring their cattle to graze in my cassava farm and ended up uprooting the cassava for their cattle to feed and also cut down the plantains for their cattle to eat.

“They also destroyed four Geepee water storage tanks, two weed spraying pump machines and the keys to the farmhouse and assaulted some of my workers inflicted bodily injuries on them,” he said.

While appealing for relevant stakeholders to assist and the Ugo Community, Eghaghe said he had written several petitions to draw security agencies and the state government’s attention to the nefarious activities of herdsmen, but the attempt had not yielded the desired result.