Angered by the alleged killing of an indigene by
suspected Fulani herdsmen at the popular Okada junction along the Benin-Lagos expressway
in Edo State, some youths in the area on Tuesday were said to have gone to the
camps of the cattlemen and sacked them.
From media findings, circumstances surrounding
the killing were sketchy as it was learnt that the youths allegedly marched
through the town of Ofumwengbe in Ovia North East Local Government Area of the
state demanding that the herdsmen should leave the town.
Consequently, the road was barricaded by the
protesters who carried fresh leaves as a mark of solidarity, causing a long
traffic jam on the busy expressway which connects the country's commercial capital
of Lagos to the eastern and Niger Delta regions.
The state Commissioner of Police, DanMallam Mohammed,
could not be reached on his mobile phone as it was switched off at the time of
inquiry, while the state police spokesman, Chidi Nwanbuzor, refused to answer his
phone call. But a source disclosed that the youths were said to have ransacked
the herdsmen camps in the bush.
The source stressed that the herdsmen ran away on
seeing the mob which chanted solidarity songs, insisting that the cattlemen
should vacate the community which has lately been notorious for kidnapping by hoodlums.
Last month, a lecturer, Azebiokhai of the Igbinedion
University, Okada, was reportedly gunned down by suspected Fulani herdsmen
during a kidnap operation.
Also recently, a driver conveying medical equipment
in an ambulance donated by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) from
Port Harcourt, Rivers State, to Akure, Ondo State, was reportedly killed in a
failed kidnap operation.
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