Residents of Kokori in Ethiope East Local Government Area of Delta State on Thursday took to the streets to protest the brutal attack on an indigene by suspected killer herdsmen.
The victim, 40-year-old Edafe Efeurhobo, is currently lying in critical condition in hospital after he was reportedly attacked in broad daylight for cautioning the herdsmen to stop grazing their cattle on his mother’s cassava farm near their residence.
Eyewitness accounts said the herdsmen ignored his warning and attacked him with a sharp cutlass, severing both hands and inflicting deep cuts on his face.
Confirming the incident, the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Bright Edafe, said an investigation was ongoing and assured that efforts were being intensified to apprehend the suspects and bring all those responsible to justice.
Angered by the attack, women and youths of Kokori community marched through major streets, demanding justice and urgent action from the authorities to secure their lives and farmlands.
Describing the near-fatal attack on Efeurhobo as “barbaric and unprovoked,” the protesters threatened reprisal against any herdsmen or collaborators found within the community.
Some youths were seen moving around the town in tricycles, making public announcements of “no entry to herdsmen in Kokori,” while vowing to ostracise anyone collaborating with them.
The protesters lamented that the attack occurred just days after suspected herdsmen allegedly killed a young man in the neighbouring Orhoakpor community and left his head behind, heightening fears across the area.
They called on security agencies and government authorities to deploy security personnel to Kokori to forestall further attacks.
Speaking from his hospital bed, Efeurhobo narrated how the incident occurred on Monday.
“I saw them destroying my mother’s cassava planted near our new house. So I told them to take their cows away; my two friends were with me,” he said.
“Before I knew it, the short one stoned me. I was shocked and told them to leave. So they left. A moment later, I crossed to the side where I had my palm press, with my friends monitoring work in the new house.
“I didn’t know that the tall one had laid an ambush for me. As he chased me, I fell, and he started butchering me. As I shouted, a woman and a boy rushed towards me, and he ran away. He cut my two hands, part of my face, and one eye. I was rushed to the hospital by my friends and the two others.”
Corroborating his account, his mother, Mrs. Mary Efeurhobo, said the community has been living in fear.
“The Kokori community has lived in constant fear of the herdsmen and cannot go to the farm,” she lamented.
“Now, they have come to the community to attack my boy because they want to destroy the small house farm,” she added, calling on the government to intervene urgently.
“Government must save my son and save us from this calamity,” she said.
Cude from THE PUNCH
