Ekiti herdsmen attack: Police demanded N12,000 before they could move – Residents

'Victim'

Residents of Oke Ako community in
Ikole Local government area of Ekiti state have
blamed police in the area for failing to act swiftly
on Friday night when the community was thrown
into mourning, wailing and gnashing of teeth, by
suspected killer herdsmen who invaded the
town, leaving two dead and several others
wounded.

One of the residents, Muyiwa Olukosi whose wife
sustained matchete wound, told newsmen that
the case was reported to police in the area
stressing that there was no response from them.
According to him, the police demanded for a
sum N12,00 before they could move to the
scene as he said police complained of no fuel in
their hilux van.

Olukosi who maintained that things would have
gone worst more than what one could imagine if
not for the prompt response of a team of the
Nigerian Army from Akure, even before the
arrival of police in the area also noted that the
attack would have been prevented had the police
acted swiftly during the attack.

He called on the Governments at all levels to
beef up security in the area in order to avert the
re-occurrence of such development.

On the attack another eyewitness told journalists
that the incident in which the entire village was
sacked occurred at about 8:00 pm on Friday.

A woman, who identified herself as Mrs Grace
Olofin, had during in a telephone chat alleged
that the killer herdsmen invaded the community
in large numbers, caught the people of the
community unawares, adding that the invaders
were armed with dangerous weapons like
automatic guns, bows, arrows, swords,
matchetes, hacking and mauling their victims
with reckless abandon.

Olofin further alleged majority of the villagers
had to scamper for safety in the bushes to
escape the onslaught of the killer herdsmen,
who according to her were hacking the hapless
villagers with their deadly weapons.

She said the invaders had shot sporadically into
the air and killed one Lekan Arosanyin and a yet
to be identified person, while four others
sustained various degrees of injuries and were
said to be receiving treatment at a private
hospital in Ado Ekiti, the state capital.

Another witness , who narrowly escaped being
killed, Adebayo Ajayi, described the incident as a
reprisal attack as he said that the herdsmen had
previously fallen out with the villagers over their
grazing activities in the community.

He further explained that the villagers had been
resisting the use of their farmlands as grazing
fields by the herdsmen.

The Divisional Police Officer in the area who also
spoke on telephone interview confirmed the
incident noting that he could not ascertain
whether the incident was armed robbery or fulani herdmen attack.