14th September, 2023
By Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Some women in the Ejamah community of Eleme local government area of Rivers State, have staged a peaceful over the incessant destruction of their crops by herdsmen and their cattle.
They lamented that herders and their cows trespass on their farms with impunity, massively destroying crops to which they have devoted their energy and lifesaving to plant and tend.
The women who walked on some major roads in the community carried their protest to the Eleme Police Station where they cried and complained bitterly.
The women carried twigs, branches of cassava stems remnants of crops allegedly destroyed by cows.
They also carried placards with inscriptions lamenting the loss of proceeds from the harvests which they used to feed their families and pay their children’s school fees to cattle.
They lamented that unless something urgently is done to check the excesses of Herders the people of the Ejamah community will be driven into penury.
One of the Women who gave her name as Madam Martha Ollor said the farmers watch helplessly as herdsmen feed their cows with their farm crops.
“We are left with nothing as our months of toiling are consumed by cows within minutes and hours. We are hungry and jobless after herders fed their cows with our crops”.
The women appealed to the local government council and state and federal government to urgently intervene to help protect their farmland from cows.
They lamented that they were scared of planting on their farms again due to the massive destruction of their crops by cattle rearers /herdsmen who were always armed with dangerous weapons.
It would be recalled that the immediate past administration of Nyesom Wike had a policy against open grazing of animals, especially cows.
Both the State and local governments were yet the react to the protest and the allegation of destruction of farmlands by herdsmen and their cows.