By Samuel Ogunsona
Amotekun operatives corps in Ondo state were at the weekend attacked by suspected Fulani herdsmen at Igogba in the Akure North Local Government Area of the South West State.
According to statement by the corps spokesperson in the state, Jimoh Adeniken, the officers were attacked by stones and some other dangerous weapons while enforcing the anti-open grazing law of the state.
He said the officers had earlier received a call from the farmers stating that there was an open grazing on their farmlands, destroying the farm with no one controlling the cattle grazing on the farm.
The officers immediately left for the farm to help the farmers stop the open grazing while they arrested the cattle and led them to the headquarters of the formation at Alagbaka, Akure, the state capital.
Upon this formation, Irohinodua learnt that some people suspected to be owners of the cattle came out in numbers and began to hurl stones at them.
An eyewitness which doesn’t want to be named said one of the officers of the Amotekun Corps was seen covered with blood as he was being attacked with dangerous weapons.
According to the statement from the Amotekun Corps entitled, “Unprovoked Attack On Officers and Men of the Amotekun Corps At Sango Area, Igoba, Along Ado Road, Akure By Fulani Herdsmen,” one of the officers hacked was in coma and a number of officers sustained varying degrees of injury.
The statement read in part: “Upon constant complaints from many farmers in the Igoba and Osi areas of Akure North Local Government since the 6th of May 2024 till date, the agency of Amotekun corps from the Headquarters in Alagbaka Akure, responded today dated 5th of July 2024, at about 1600 hours.
“During the operation, the corps surveillance team was led to the farms by the owners. On getting there, they met over one hundred and twenty cows ravaging the farms and there was nobody with the cows.
“Determined to enforce the anti-open grazing law of the State, the operatives of the Amotekun corps moved the cows out of the farms, and while passing by the Sango Area, at Igoba, along Ado Road in Akure, groups of armed Fulani herdsmen attacked the officers with stones, bottles, cutlasses, and guns.”
However, the Anti-Open Grazing Laws (AOGLs), imposes restrictions on herders in 13 states of Nigeria, as been a regulatory solution aimed at mitigating conflicts between farmers and herders over access to grazing land.