Okada (Edo State) – There seems to be no end in sight to the the security challenges confronting our country: while Boko Haram plagues the Northeast, armed bandits terrorize the Northwest and North-Central , while rampaging Fulani herdsmen continue to sack and pillage towns and villages in the South-South and Southwest just as Briafran agitators make governance difficult in the Southeast of Nigeria.
While Boko Haram attacks and bandits kidnapping school boys and girls in the North seem to be grabbing and making global headlines, the menace of armed Fulani Herdsmen in the South of the nation seem to have gone largely ignored and unreported despite it rising daily casualties. Reports reaching our news desk from Okada the administrative capital of Ovia North-East Local Government area of Edo State have it that suspected armed Fulani Herdsmen attacked the town on Thursday April 7th leaving several persons dead and hundreds injured in a commando-style attack. As at press time, no fewer than eleven
persons have been confirmed dead though the figure is expected to rise as many others lie critically ill in the hospital.
According to an eye witness that pleaded anonymity, the attacks began about 11am inside the main market as that day was the market day when farmers bring their produce from neighboring towns and villages.
According to our investigation, one of the persons that lost their lives in the attack was one Alex Egiemite who was allegedly butchered to death by the marauding killer Herdsmen. The said Alex Egiemite has gone to the farm that fateful day in company of his nephew named Elvis Idahosa when the attacks commenced. According to our source, the Herdsmen attacked through two fronts: one attack, which was the first one, started at the market while the other front was in the farms.
The said Elvis Idahosa, who was in the farm with his uncle when the Herdsmen attacked, managed to escape with his life by running into the bush but his uncle was not that lucky as he was allegedly hacked to death by the Fulani merchants of death. As at press time, the whereabouts of the said Elvis Idahosa has not been ascertained even though he was said to have survived the attack.
There is no gain saying the fact that there is more to these attacks than Herdsmen merely looking for food for their pasture, there is a political undertone behind these incessant killings by so-called Fulani Herdsmen who have become a law unto themselves carrying assorted raffles and sophisticated weapons while purportedly been mere pastoralists.
The nation seems enveloped in a vortex of unending lawlessness and insecurity that is akin to that of a failed state . It is, however, hoped that we put our acts together and stem this slide into anarchy and civil war.
