*Storm Soun palace with placards
By; BAYO AKAMO Ibadan,
Farmers in Oriire local government area of Oyo State have protested against the alleged excessive atrocities of bandits in their communities.
It was learnt that the protesters mainly women on Thursday evening, stormed the palace of Soun of Ogbomosoland, Oba Ghandi Afolabi Olaoye to solicit for his intervention on the matter.
According to the protesters, the bandits have been destroying their farms, killing people, macheting them, as well as slashing off their hands and acting as if the farmers are their slaves.
” We are tired of the atrocities of these Bororo herdsmen. They destroy our farms, kill our people, machete us, slash off our hands and act as if we are their slaves. They even rape women in the farm. Now, we can’t go to our farms again and we are hungry.”
Spokesperson for the protesting farmers, Chief Aremu Ogundare who is the head of Kedo Arigbeyo, disclosed that the farmers are from three villages in Oriire Local Government Area, namely, Kedo Arigbeyo, Kedo Salami and Mosunmaje.
Chief Ogundare said the farmers were at the Soun Palace to solicit his assistance on the activities of the herdsmen, saying, “Cattle have become menace to us, the problem escalated about four or five years ago.
“We don’t enjoy farming any longer, all the cassava we cultivated were destroyed by them, no one has any cassava in the farm anymore.
“Then, our cashew farms we thought of falling back on, they would take their cattle there in the night to eat them off”, he said.
Chief Ogundare added, “To feed our families now is hard, we can’t train our children in school, those in higher institutions have returned because we couldn’t raise fund to sponsor them any longer, feeding also is a problem.That’s the reason we came here with a save-our-soul message.
“We discussed it several times, we were at the police station, we reported to local government chairman, none yielded any solution. They persisted. They machete us, threaten oftentimes if anyone resist them, they would kill them. Women can’t go to farm any longer even we men, we venture out in fear, out of compulsion because we must feed our families.”
According to Chief Ogundare, the “destroyers” forcefully take over lands, “nobody gave them land, they will come and erect settlements on any land of their choice and begin to perpetrate their nefarious activities. We are fed up, we are helpless, that’s the reason we have come to seek the assistance of our royal father.”
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