•Aigbokhan Oseremen
Convener, Esan Worldwide Community, Aigbokhan Oseremen, has called on the Edo State Government to ensure that outsiders obtain permits before settling in communities.
Oseremen said this during an interview on Channels Television today.
“This is what the government should do and they should start doing it now, which is for anybody to reside in our villages or bushes, there should be a kind of permit and those people should be watched,” Oseremen said.
The EWC leaders also alleged that “many” of the herders are “real terrorists”.
“The government also needs to make sure that the Fulani herdsmen are known, so somebody would not just be living in a place without knowing who they are. Many of them are real terrorists.
“If you go to Uromi market, you’d see a lot of Fulani herdsmen, trailers bringing them into the land every single day.
“Trailer loads of bandits, terrorists, or Fulani herdsmen are being shipped into the land. When you bring these people into the land with no job for them, the next thing they go into is banditry, kidnapping,” he stated.
According to him, the herders “have kids, their wives, their families, which is something that is very dangerous for the villagers because from those bushes, they come out to attack”.
On mounting fears over insecurity, he said, “I will not dispute the fact that we have our people with them.
“Sure a lot of our youths are with them, probably they are being enticed by the money and whatever so when you see cult people clashing in Ekpoma and so, some of these cult boys are affiliated to them, which makes it very difficult because when you have some of the villagers who are aiding and are bathing in crime. This is a problem for the government.”
He further advocated the use of profiling.
“If this profiling is being done, it will reduce, and lastly, those bushes where the hut is being designed should be destroyed,” Oseremen added.
On Saturday, a viral video showed some residents in the Edo Central region of the state protesting the rising kidnappings and killings.
The video also showed some people, suspected to be cattle breeders, fleeing a market upon sighting the protesters.
Insecurity
His comment follows concerns among some Edo residents over the presence of Fulani herdsmen who are said to have settled deep into their communities and are also allegedly attacking villagers.
But the state government said the matter would be dealt with in a short while.
“The solution is simple: identify where they are in the forest and dislodge them from there, and technology-driven strategies are being implemented, and very shortly we will see these things come to an end,” the Special Adviser to Governor Monday Okpebholo, on Media and Publicity, Bugie Okhuemoi, told Channels Television today.
“There are serious strategies on the ground and in place that will be activated very soon. In fact, they have already been activated, but in a very short while, we will see the effect,” he added.
