Suspected Herdsmen Attack Amotekun Corps Officers in Ondo

A group of suspected herdsmen attacked operatives of the Amotekun Corps at Igogba in the Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State in a violent clash on Friday.

The reported attack happened while officers of the corps were enforcing the state’s anti-open grazing law, which came into effect in August 2021 and was signed by the Late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu.

According to reports, the attack left one of the officers, whose name has not been disclosed, with very grievous injuries after being hacked by the armed herdsmen.

The incident was confirmed by Jimoh Adeniken, the corps commander of Amotekun, today.

According to the corps commander, what had been happening of late was that farmers, particularly from the Igoba and Osi areas of the state, had been raising frequent complaints about how cattle invaded their farmland and constantly destroyed it.

The statement narrated the violence in the encounter, supported by videos and pictorial evidence.

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

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

Resolved to enforce the anti-open grazing law, Amotekun officers evacuated the cows from the farms.  On their way, going through the Sango Area in Igoba, along Ado Road, Akure, they ran into armed Fulani herders wielding stones, bottles, and guns; one officer was hacked into a coma while trying to disarm herders.

The attackers made the officers run for their lives. “Attackers continued to throw stones and bottles till they escaped to the main road,” Adeniken reported.

Shots fired into the air by operatives of the Amotekun corps repelled the attackers, and they secured their safe return to base. Many of these officers are wounded to various degrees of injury and are presently receiving treatment at the hospital.

The cows’ owner over the incident has been identified, and an investigation is already underway.

He highlighted that the action of the Amotekun Corps was based on the resolution reached at the Southern Governors’ Forum, working on ensuring no clashes but maintaining peace in the state.

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