Local Residents Say They Can’t Farm and Are Afraid to Report Attacks to Police
By Ebere Inyama
The residents of Oforola community in Owerri west Local Government Area are now living in fear following frequent attacks by herdsmen from the Fulani tribe in their farmlands, TruthNigeria has learned The Fulani ethnicity claims as many as 10 million members in Nigeria and some are at the center of an ethnic cleansing phenomenon referred to by western analysts as “farmer-herder clash.” In addition, kidnap-for ransom gangs originating in Northwestern and Northcentral states have proliferated across most of the vast Middle Belt of Nigeria and now have emerged as a menace in Imo State in Nigeria’s Southeast. Some — but not – all kidnapping gangs are composed of Fulani people.
A wave of kidnappings, murders and rapes this year have prompted the Imo State Commissioner of Police, Aboki Danjuma, to increase police patrols in the Owerri Local Government Area of the State, a government unit dubbed a “County” on TruthNigeria. The crimes form a pattern in a forest preserve reaching across the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nekede, Ihiagwa Avu and Obinze communities, all subsumed under Owerri West County.
When farmers can’t go to their farms
Mr. Chinenyerem Osuji, a community development leader of Umuagubiam village in Oforola community in Imo State told TruthNigeria that his neighbors are afraid to go to their farms due to regular attacks by Fulani herdsmen.
“Since December, 2023, armed Fulani herdsmen have been attacking us in our farmlands,” Osuji said to TruthNigeria. “Our wives and mothers are afraid to go to the farms. Our youths are helpless. On January 10, 2024, five people were kidnapped in our village. Again on January 30,2024, another set of people were kidnapped. This has become a daily occurrence,” Osuji added.
The latest attack pounded local farmers on Sunday, February 25. Mr. Theophilus Mehara, a native of Umuagubiam, was attacked on his farm by Fulani herdsmen who inflicted injuries on his head and other parts of his body with machete cuts. To add to this problem, the herdsmen bring in their cattle to graze on our crops in our farmland. If this situation is not brought under control, we will all starve to death because farming in our only source of livelihood here in Oforola. I am calling on the government to come to our rescue before it is too late.” Said Osuji to TruthNigeria.
Responding to further questions from TruthNigeria, Mr. Osuji said he has not reported any of the incidences of Kidnappings happening in Oforola to the Police.
Information available to TruthNigeria shows that between January 1, 2024 and February 27, 2024, a total of 19 kidnap incidents have been reported in the area out of which 10 victims paid various amounts of money as ransom while the remaining victims escaped from the clutches of the abductors.
When contacted by TruthNigeria, the Imo state Public Relations Officer, ASP Henry Okoye said the matter has not been reported to him.
“Did he report the matter to the Police? I have not received any such report here. However, I will contact the Divisional Police Officer for Owerri west Local government area and ask him to go to the hospital where the victim is receiving treatment and listen to his complaint,” Okoye said.
When TruthNigeria visited the Bright Star specialist hospital located at Umuehieta, Avu community in Owerri west Local Government area, where Mehara was hospitalized, he was found in stable condition. The victim who hails from Umuagubiam, Oforola community in Owerri west Local Government Area of Imo state, narrated his experience.
“I went to my farm in the evening time to collect firewood. While I was gathering the firewood, I heard noises behind me and when I turned around, I felt a heavy blow on my head, and I fell down. When I raised my head, I saw two young men wielding machetes. They attacked me with the machete and gave me deep cuts on my head and shoulders. I could not lift my left hand due to the pain I felt after the cut, but I managed to use my right hand to collect sand from the ground and threw it into their eyes. Before they could remove the sand from their eyes, I stood up and ran into the bush from where I found my way home”, Mehara told TruthNigeria.
Responding to questions from TruthNigeria, Mehara said he will not report the matter to the police because he does not have money for any avoidable expenditure.
“ I don’t have any money to pay for petrol to be used by the police in fueling their vehicle”, he said.
Incidents of Kidnappings in Oforola Ticking Upward in 2024
Kidnappings by armed Fulani herdsmen has been taking place in Owerri -west Local Government Area of Imo state since mid- 2023, but rapidly increased from January, 2024, as reported by TruthNigeria. In January 2024, TruthNigeria reported that four people, including three men and a woman were kidnapped at about 6 pm while on their way from Umuokanne to Oforola and they regained their freedom two days later after their relatives paid a ransom of N800,000 to the kidnappers.
An officer of the NHFSS, Comdr. Charles Obieze – Amadi who spoke to TruthNigeria said “Fulani herdsmen are responsible for over 20 incidents of kidnapping that happened in Owerri west LGA in 2023.”
Victims Do Not Report Kidnap Incidents To The Police
On three occasions when TruthNigeria called the Imo state Police Public Relations Officer, Henry Okoye, to confirm reported incidents of kidnapping in Oforola, Okoye said he did not receive any such reports.
A resident of Oforola who does not want his name mentioned, told TruthNigeria that the reason why victims and their relations do not report kidnap incidents to the police is because they are scared that the police might ask them to pay huge sum of money to sponsor the investigation or to fuel the vehicle to be used by the police in coming to the scene of the crime or to come and make arrests, he said.
Ebere Inyama is a journalist covering Southeastern Nigeria for TruthNigeria
