Delta Government on Tuesday urged the people of Uwheru Community in Ughelli North Local Government Area to sheath their sword and embrace peace in the wake of herdsmen incursion into their farmland.
The Chairman, Delta State Livestock Management Committee (DLMC), Chief Julius Egbedi, gave the charge at Ughelli.
Egbedi was speaking when he led DLMC members to a peace meeting with leaders of Ewheru community and Miyetti Allah Cattle Herders and Dealers Association at Ughell in the state.
He noted that the meeting became necessary when the committee received urgent and distressed call from the Uwheru community about the invasion of their community farmland and the wanton destruction of their crops by gun wielding herdsmen and their cattle.
He said that the committee had become responsive more so now that the state had a livestock law.
This he said was to forestall a repeat of the massive killings that occurred three years ago in the same community due to herders and farmers clashes.
“We are here on a peace meeting because we got a report that there is almost a near break down of law and order in Uwheru, that the Hausa/Fulani herdsmen have taken over the Uwheru community and their farmland.
“The community for the past one week have been sending us the report and calling on government to intervene to avoid an unpleasant occurrence in the community.
“So, we have to fix a meeting to meet with the Uwheru people and herdsmen but incidentally, the herdsmen we have met with today are not the ones in the forest that causing the problem.
“However, we have been able to have a useful meeting and information and we shall strategies to reach those herdsmen in the forest and push them out.
“We have asked the community to maintain peace and not take laws into their hands while we in government will do what we should to ensure that no single soul is lost”.
On his part, Chairman, Ughelli North LG Council, Godwin Adode, said that there was pressure from the community occasioned by the invasion of their farmland by the herdsmen.
He also pleaded with the community not to take laws into their hands while commending the committee for timely intervention to avert crisis in the area.
He gave assurance that the state governor would act swiftly to ensure that the challenge was nipped in the bud.
Earlier, Mr Jonathan Efiavwore and Chief Mlpheraon Igbedi, who spoke for the Uwheru community, said that for about one week now, Fulani herdsmen had invaded their community with over 50,000 cattle, chased them away from their farmland and destroying their crops.
According to Igbedi, President General, Uwheru Clan, Uwheru for over the years have been invaded by the herders and many farmers have been killed, women raped and farm crops destroyed.
” The most recent was the killing of 10 people in the community by the herders, so, we are calling on the government to intervene and urge the herders to move their cows from our community.
Also, Efiavwore, National President, Niger Delta Farmers Association, said,” Uwheru is a major food producing community in Delta, it prides itself for groundnut, plantain and cassava production but we are no more since the invasion of the Fulani herders many years ago.
He noted that the passage of the livestock law would provide the relief, while urging state government to intervene and save the community from gun wielding herdsmen and their cattle.
On his part, Alhaji Jibrin Haruna, Public Relation Officer, Delta Cattle Dealers, also decried the herders invasion on Uwheru community and urged the committee to act fast to identify and move them out of Uwheru.
According to him, no Fulani herder in Delta grazes on Uwheru community farmland.
“Today’s meeting is good and it will help us find out who the herders that causes problem in Uwheru community are.
” By our understanding, most of them migrate from other states through boundary communities and their cows swim across waters to Uwheru community.
“We are appealing to the state government to find a way of identifying them and to move them out of Uwheru,” Haruna said.(NAN).
