FULANI HERDSMEN KILL 31 IN DELTA COMMUNITY

Tears flowed freely yesterday at Agadama-Uwheru community in Ughelli North council, Delta state as one of the 31 persons killed by Hausa-Fulani herdsmen, identified as, Stephen Omamuge Ajaita, was laid to rest at Agadama, his native place.

The deceased, a father of three, was one of the 31 persons brutally killed between between 2012 and 2015 by well armed Hausa-Fulani in Uwheru kingdom. He was said to have been shot severally in the head with AK47 rifle as he and other persons tried to ward off the herdsmen from their farms

He was reportedly killed and abandoned in his farm for several days by the herdsmen as the villagers were too scared to rescue him, his body was later retrieved by vigilante groups from adjoining Urhobo communities in Ughelli North.

According to the president-general of the Uwheru Community Development Association, Chief Ogarivi M. Utso, the herdsmen always arrived the community during the dry season especially around November of every year in several trailers loaded with cows and take over the open lands, ponds and farmlands and bar indigenes from entering.

He said the herdsmen shoot their guns openly in the air as their trailers arrive the community to warn the people of their presence and to warn them to stay away from the open lands and farms which they subsequently occupy with their herds. The herdsmen leave at the beginning of the rainy season and return in November.

The president general said Uwheru people now live in perpetual fear as the Fulani herdsmen had wreaked havoc in the kingdom in the pas 12 years ranging from unwarranted assaults, raping of girls and women, maiming to deaths.

He gave a comprehensive list of all the people of the Uwheru kingdom who had been killed by herdsmen since 2012. The list, he said, does not contain the ones who were killed and the corpses were never found by the various communities in Uwheru. He estimated them to be aboout ten

Utso disclosed that the problem with herdsmen in Uwheru started in 2004 when Ohoro community of Uwheru was brutally invaded by Fulani hrrdsmen with active collaboration of soldiers and that many houses were razed down including the palatial residence of the then president general of the community, Mr. Emmanuel Enivwegha. He disclosed that ten youths were killed including one Mr. Edjerigho Enivwegha, the immediate younger brother of then president general.

"Ohoro was like a flood gate that opened the way to further invasions of the entire Uwheru kingdom till date. Uwheru is peace loving people known world over as groundnut producers and majority of them also indulge in hunting, farming and fishing activities, but the brutal activities of the herdsmen has affecting these economic activities of the people and have thrown them into hunger" , Utso said.

He lampooned the Police and the DSS at the Ughelli North council area for doing little or nothing to assist Uwheru people.

He said the annual occupation of Uwheru by heavily armed Fulani herdsmen have continued to create hardship, pains and difficulties for the harmless people of Uwheru.

The president general said all effort to contain the herdsmen including bringing them to a roundtable discussion was abortive and that despite reports and repreaentations made to all government levels and the polic over the years, yielded nothing.