The Ogoni Elders Forum, under the aegis of ‘Gbokabaari’, has raised alarm over the invasion of farmlands in some Ogoni communities by marauding armed herdsmen, who brazenly graze cows on cultivated crops.
The position of the forum was contained in a press statement signed by the chairman, Elder Monday Abue, and secretary, Desmond Nbete, and made available to the media.
The statement declared that the invaders armed with AK 47, some of which are strapped to cows, have driven away farmers from their farmlands.
It further called for the immediate evacuation of the herders and their cows from the farms,stressing that the encroachment of the affected farmlands in communities of Baaluekun, Kpaa, Semeluekun, Daen in Khana Local Government Area and Eteo in Eleme Local Government Area did not only constitute a threat to public peace but also undermine the livelihood of the people.
The statement, which read in part stated that, “ we want to raise this alarm to the authorities that be, and alert all lovers of justice in the world that our people cannot afford to be victims of another pogrom. We have had pitiably sad history in recent times of being massively killed, as well as having the very basis of our livelihood devastated by decades of wanton environmental pollution, our people mainly depend on subsistence farming as their source of livelihood and do not want any further attempt of herdsmen invasion to the toxic mix”.
The forum recalled an earlier premonition of the planned militarisation of Ogoniland through the drafting of soldiers to the area in the guise of providing security services for the Ogoni clean up exercise by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, to which protest were made by Ogoni stakeholders to Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo and the Ministry of Environment.

By: Taneh Beemene