By Kelvin Ohoror
The peaceful residents of Port-Avwon, a community in the Uwheru Kingdom, Ughelli North Local Government Area, Delta State, who recently fled the town following herdsmen invasion have cried out that their tormentors are unrelenting and have overrun their homeland.
However, Delta State Police Command had in reaction to the cry for help, debunked the claim that herdsmen invaded the community.
One of the residents who escaped from Port-Avwon village to Uwheru main town, Mrs. Yellow Ighochureya said: “Herdsmen have taken over our village, the people are right there in Port-Avwon and they have destroyed our farm crops.
Another resident of the village who gave her name as Eunice, said: “Fulani people have driven us from our community. Everybody has fled the community, we are calling on the government to help us to remove Fulani people from the community.”
“These Fulani herdsmen have made us hungry and we are crying to the government and you know in our community, 99 percent of the people are farmers. Farming is what sustains us, we do not have any company or higher institution.
“Every year, after planting, Fulani herdsmen will come from their place and destroy our crops and put us in hunger and as farmers, we are trying to train our children and since Fulani herdsmen are destroying our farms, we can not send them to school again because we do not have money to pay their school fees.
“This year, they have come again, the small crops we have planted since December 2021, they have destroyed them while chasing people from their farms. We want the government to help us because this situation is very bad. Please we are begging the government to come to our aid,” Women Leader of the community, Chief (Mrs.) Christiana Etagbedavweshe said.
Meanwhile, Delta State Commissioner for Higher Education, Prof. Patrick Muoboghare, who responded to the Police denial of invasion said: “The Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, lied; he deliberately lied.
“It is a shame, a very big shame that a Police officer can deny the fact that Fulani has invaded the Uwheru community when everyone in the world knows that as we speak, they are there.
“Anybody, no matter how highly placed who says there is no invasion of Fulani herdsmen on Uwheru going on right now, is part of those who planned the invasion.
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“This was how the Police Commissioner in 2020 denied that there were no killings in Uwheru by Fulani herdsmen until we were forced to swallow our pride; we went to the forest and exhumed the bodies from the shallow graves in which they were buried by the scoundrels and the whole world saw them.
“Till this moment, the Police have not owned up to the fact that in 2020, there were killings in Uwheru. Now, the same people have sent them to go and cause havoc in Uwheru.
“They are from the Niger Republic, from Chad, they are Malians, but they are Fulanis and they have their people here who are protecting them.
“I take exception to that statement by the Police Public Relations Officer; it is an insult and he should be redeployed. Even the commissioner should be redeployed if he believes that kind of story,” Muoboghare fume.
