The fear of the Hausa/Fulani herdsmen is now the beginning of wisdom in Okpanam, Ibusa and Azagba-Ogwashi communities in Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State.
No fewer than 10 persons, including local farmers and developers, have been robbed at gunpoint in their farms and project sites in the last one month.
The unwholesome activities of the Hausa/Fulani, which includes intimidating, raping and dispossessing unsuspecting people, along bush paths is now taking toll on Umu-odafe and Obodogba Quarters in Ibusa and Okpanam respectively.
Over 50 GSM handsets, undisclosed sum of money and farm produce have been carted away after their withdrawal to their hideout in Atakpo riverside of the adjoining plantation between the communities.
A property developer along the old Ibusa-Okpanam Road, Johnson Chukwuemeka, said the hoodlums have formed the habit of raiding project sites, having disguised as cattle or cow rearers.
Speaking to The Eagle Online in Okpanam on Monday, Chukwuemeka narrated his encounter with the hoodlums, who he said “are currently terrorizing the localities with dreaded rifles, including AK47, pump-action guns, daggers, battle axe and other dangerous weapons”.
He added: “I, accompanied by five other friends, was going to inspect my building site, immediately these hoodlums with their faces almost covered sighted us, they hurriedly withdrew to the Atakpo Riverside of the bush.”
He alleged that some peasant farmers and labourers working on building sites in the area have been violently attacked and dispossessed of their belongings in recent time, after been asked to lie down.
“Some farmers were ordered at gunpoint to lie down in their farm huts for two to three days, while they watch the hoodlums harvesting the tubers of yam in their farm,” he confirmed.
Corroborating Chukwuemeka, a farmer at Obodogba Quarters in Okpanam, who simply identified himself as Christopher, said a four-man gang invaded his farm, beat him up before commanding at gunpoint to lie down.
“They uprooted over 10 to 20 tubers of yam on my farmland, broke into my hut again and stole all the bottles of oil there. My pineapple farm was not spared,” Christopher lamented.
While Chukwuemeka called on men of the police command and the Department of State Service in the state to burst their hideout in Atakpo, he said their sporadic shooting to scare away perceived enemies at night is currently causing panic in the affected neighbouring communities.