Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
Infuriated by the killing of an indigene by suspected Fulani herdsmen at the popular Okada junction on the Benin-Lagos expressway, some youths went into the bush and sacked the camps of the cattlemen.
The circumstances surrounding the killing were sketchy but the youths were said to have marched through the town of Ofumwengbe in Ovia North East local government area of Edo State, demanding that the herdsmen had to leave the small town.
The road was barricaded by the protesters who carried fresh leaves as a mark of solidarity, causing a long traffic jam on the ever-busy road which connects Lagos to the East and Niger Delta region of the country.
The Edo State Commissioner of Police, Dan Mallam Mohammed, could not be reached on his mobile phone as it was switched off while the police spokesman, Chidi Nwanbuzor could not take his call. But a source disclosed that the youths were said to have ransacked the herdsmen’s camps deep in the bush.
The source stressed that the herdsmen ran away on seeing the mob who chanted solidarity songs, insisting that the cattlemen should vacate the community which had lately witnessed kidnapping by some rampaging daredevil hoodlums.
Only last month, a lecturer, Azebiokhai of Igbinedion University at nearby Okada was reportedly gunned down by suspected Fulani herdsmen during a kidnap operation.
Also, a driver of an ambulance donated by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) who was conveying medical equipment from Port-Harcourt to Akure, Ondo State, was recently killed in the area during a bungled kidnap operation.