Some gunmen have killed no fewer than six farmers, traders and passengers in the last two weeks at Arimogija and Molege axis of Ose Local Government Area of Ondo state.
The villagers who were shocked by the attack labelled the suspected armed herdsmen as terrorists.
A community leader, Owolafe Folorunsho said some gunmen attacked the communities on February 2.
He said the attack was triggered by efforts by farmers to repel the continued wanton destruction of their crops by the herdsmen.
According to him, “the herders have continued to invade our farmlands at night, harvest our crops to feed their Cows & in many occasions, they will come during the day, forced us to uproot the Cassava by ourselves at gunpoint, command us to cut them into pieces to feed their cows”.
“In order not to take laws into our hands, we reported this act of economic sabotage to the appropriate authority who took prompt action to chase them out of the farming areas only for the Fulani herdsmen to come back and attacked us with AK-47, Pump Action, Axes & Cutlasses and killed our people at night.”
According to him, in a broad daylight, the terrorists laid ambush, attacked some traders coming from Akure & killed all the occupants before taking their money & set the car ablaze.
Confirming the incident, the Onimoru of Imoru, Oba Rotimi Obamuwagun lamented the atrocities of the herdsmen in the area.
He expressed sadness about the criminal activities of the herdsmen in his domain.
This was corroborated by the Odibiado of Ijagba, Oba Andrew Ikioya Ilevare added that the bandits have now resulted to harvesting plantains and bring them to market to sell.