Farmers in Yagba West local government area of Kogi State have called on the state government to urgently put in place measures to guarantee their security against the nefarious activities of Fulani herdsmen in the area.
Speaking exclusively with Vanguard at Okoloke, one of the leaders of the farmers, Chief Adesina Ogooluwa, said farmers in the area were at the mercy of Fulani herdsmen who had been terrorizing them over the years.
He averred that the increasing rate of insecurity in the area was adversely affecting agricultural productivity.
He said: “We urge the government to direct security agencies to be proactive in ensuring the security of farmers on their farms. Fulani herdsmen have continued to attack our farmers and also attack them when the farmers complain about the destruction done to their farmlands and crops by cattle. This trend has been a big threat to the community of farmers in this area.
“As a result of our location, we have no access to news media so that we can shout to the world before these Fulani people kill all of us here.
”That is why we are happy that Vanguard is giving us a platform to send our plea to all the authorities concerned to help us with adequate security. We are not against their presence here but not at the expense of our security.”
“The annoying thing is that, even when they commit crime and are reported to security agents, they have a lot of money to escape justice.
”We do not want our people to resort to jungle justice and that is why we are making this clarion call to the governor, the Commissioner of Police, the Commandant of the National Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Director of the State Security Service and the Kogi State Vigilante service to come to our rescue.”
