Herdsmen sack Ibadan community

Some people suspected to be Fulani herdsmen have sacked residents of Ardis, a farm settlement at Lagun, in Lagelu Local Government Area of Ibadan in Oyo State on Tuesday evening.

The suspects, numbering about 20 reportedly stormed the farm settlement with AK-47 rifles and other dangerous weapons at about 9:00 p.m.

According to Haruna Usman, a resident of the settlement, each of the suspects carried two sophisticated guns and they spoke Fulani, Pidgin English and Yoruba during the invasion

The farm supervisor, Mr. Olanipekun Ogunkolade, said the invaders robbed them of their valuables such as money, phones, clothes, shoes and food items, adding that one of the settlers, Jimmy Adedokun, who sustained gunshot injuries during the attack is receiving treat­ment in a hospital in Iwo, a community in Osun State.

When Daily Sun visited the hospital in Iwo, a staff nurse, Mrs. Adeola Adelabu, said Jimmy, has been responding to treatment.

Ogunkolade stated further: “They came to this settlement at about 9.00 p.m. on Tuesday and ransacked everywhere. The first thing they did when they came was to go to the armoury of Jimmy that was shot. They removed all his weapons before they unleashed a reign of terror on us.

“They took garri from us, soaked in a bowl of water and drank. One of us just prepared a fish soup and eba. But the invaders ate everything. It was like the woman cooked for them.”

The farm manager, Mr. Emmanuel Ashava, who said the farm deals with poultry and palm tree, said the residents of the settlement had fled the community for the fear of being attacked again by the invaders.

“Incident like this has never happened on this farm until Tuesday. But we suspected that the invaders are Fulani herdsmen because they wore shoes like herdsmen and spoke Fulani and English.

“Earlier in the day, they had mounted roadblocks at Lagun on Ibadan-Iwo Road. We learnt that they robbed the road users at 7:00am, 3:00pm and 10:30 pm on Tuesday and 3:00 a.m. on Wednesday.

“Last week, we sighted over 50 Fulani herdsmen moving from one com­munity to another in this place on the grounds that they wanted to buy Indian hemp.”

Chairman of the farm, Mr. Ayodele Adigun, who is a former secretary to Oyo State Government, said the residents of the settlement had been relocated temporarily to another place for safety but contended that the invasion of the farm was a ploy to permanently sack the farmers from the community so that they could take over and use the farm as grazing field.

The police spokesperson for Oyo State command, Mr. Adekunle Ajisebutu, could not be reached on the telephone for comment on the incident.

•Photo shows armed herdsmen.