Fulani herdsmen attack Amotekun operatives in Ondo

Operatives of the Ondo State Security Network Agency, otherwise known as Amotekun Corps, came under attack at the weekend from herdsmen at the Sango axis in Igoba community, Akure, the state capital.

Some of the operatives of the corps were hacked down with machetes while enforcing the anti-open grazing law of the state.

According to sources, the melee led to the shutdown of the busy Akure-Ado-Ekiti highway as residents and motorists scampered for safety, with vehicular movement coming to a halt for several hours.

The operatives were responding to a distress call from farmers in the area over the destruction of their farmlands and crops by the herders’ cattle when they were swooped on and attacked.

On August 13, 2021, the late former Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu signed the Anti-Open Grazing Bill into law, which prohibited open grazing of animals across the state.

Confirming the development, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the corps, Jimoh Adeniken, said that it took the spirited efforts of the operatives to de-escalate the situation, which had created tension within the Akure metropolis.

Adeniken maintained that the owner of the cows had been identified and that the operatives who sustained varying degrees of injuries during the attack were already receiving medical attention at the hospital.

He said: “Upon constant complaints from many farmers in the Igoba and Osi areas of Akure North Local Government since the 6th of May 2024 till date, the agency of Amotekun Corps from the Headquarters in Alagbaka Akure responded today, dated July 5th, 2024, at about 1600 hours.

“During the operation, the corps surveillance team was led to the farms by the owners. On getting there, they met over one hundred and twenty cows ravaging the farms, and there was nobody with the cows.

“Determined to enforce the anti-open grazing law of the state, the operatives of the Amotekun corps moved the cows out of the farms, and while passing by the Sango Area, at Igoba, along Ado Road in Akure, groups of armed Fulani herdsmen attacked the officers with stones, bottles, cutlasses, and guns.

“Thereafter, the corps retreated based on the order from the state headquarters of the Amotekun corps. Furthermore, the assailants continued to throw stones and bottles till they invaded the main road and hacked one of the Amotekun officers into a coma while attempting to disarm the officers and men of the Amotekun corps.

“The officers of the Amotekun Corps shot into the air to dislodge them and move back to the office.”

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