Angry protesters from Ovia North-East Local Government Area of Edo State have dumped the body of one of the seven people killed in the locality allegedly by herdsmen to the Governor’s Office in Benin City late on Thursday.
The protesters said that they brought the dead body to the Government House because police at the Ekiadolor Police Division did nothing but asked them to go and deposit the body in a mortuary.
They hereby gave the Edo State government a three-day ultimatum to address the problem of insecurity in the area and secure lives and property of the community dwellers.
Protesters explained that they had experienced several killings by herdsmen with the Governor, Godwin Obaseki’s visiting the area each time with assurance of adequate security and safety which hasn’t been justified with recent occurrence of killings in the area.
It would be recalled that seven persons were confirmed killed on Wednesday at the agrarian communities of Ugboke, Oshodi, Okokodo, Ariyan and Yoruba camp in the local government area.
One of the protesters, Michael Idahosa, said the communities could no longer bear the repeated attacks on the farmers, adding that they decided to bring the body to government house so that the governor could see their plight.
“We are here to protest the killings by herdsmen in our communities. The governor came to Ovia North East in 2017 when herdsmen killed one of our persons and promised to tackle the problem of herdsmen in our local government, but the government did not,” he said.
Receiving the protesters, the Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, assured them that the government would add more efforts at providing adequate security and also to bring perpetrators to book.
He said “As a state, we have made up our mind not to lament but look for solutions on how to protect our country and our state. There was also an attack in the early hours of today in Niger State; it’s a national problem. As we speak now, Governor Godwin Obaseki and other governors are in Abuja to discuss this insecurity issue in our country.”
