Suspected herdsmen have killed five local farmers during a violent attack at the Ajegunle powerline community in Akure North LGA in Ondo. 

The local farmers were working on their farmland on Tuesday when the herdsmen stormed the area and shot at them. 

A police spokeswoman, Funmilayo Odunlami-Omisanya, confirmed the attack to The Gazette.

“I’m aware of the attack, and we have commenced (an) investigation. Although I can’t give the details of casualties now, I will reach out and get back,” Ms Odunlami-Omisanya said. 

Akinola Olowolafe, one of the farmers who managed to escape the attack, confirmed the incident on Thursday. 

“The herdsmen stormed the farmlands on Tuesday around 3:00 p.m. as we were working, and they started shooting sporadically into the air and killed five of us during the attacks,” Mr Olowolafe told Peoples Gazette. 

He described the fresh attack on the farmers in the community as “very disturbing,” stressing that there had been a threat from the herdsmen on their means of livelihood. 

Explaining that the situation was no longer bearable, Mr Olowolafe noted that many farmers in the community had fled their farms for fear of being killed or attacked. 

He also complained that the herdsmen’s incessant clashes and destruction of farm crops are now worrisome, reiterating that it had forced farmers to boycott their farmlands. 

“This is how they (herdsmen) usually come to disturb and destroy our crops, and we’ve reported them to the state government and even to the security agencies.

“As I speak, no positive actions were taken from the authorities to address the activities of these marauders on our farmlands. The confrontational attitude of the herdsmen also constituted a threat to our lives as, most often, they usually kill or rape any female they met on the farms,” Mr Olowolafe explained. 

A labourer, Fidelix Daniel, who worked with one of the farmers, described the latest attack as a reprisal.

Mr Daniel stated, “We have warned them not to come to our farmlands again, but they didn’t hear, and when they came, they just started shooting and killed five of our people.

“I was inside the farm too when the incident happened, I just heard the sound of guns, and I immediately ran to the house. It was even God that saved me. They would have killed me.”

He asked the joint security agencies in the state, particularly the police and the Amotekun corps to take proactive security measures that will put an end to the incessant attacks and killing in the community.