Herdsmen attack governor aide’s farm, destroy 400 plantain stands

Samuel Ekpo, Uyo

Armed men suspected to be Fulani herdsmen have invaded a farmland belonging to the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State on Marketing and Brand Management, Mr Ime Uwah, and destroyed over 400 plantain stands.

According to him, the farmland located on Airport Road, was invaded twice by herdsmen, first in July last year as well as Wednesday of last week.

Uwah said after the last year’s invasion, his farm manager challenged the herdsmen, who rebuffed him and inflicted a machete on his right arm.

He stated that the latest incident happened last Wednesday, when the herdsmen set fire on another farm near his own, noting that the fire spread and consumed over 400 stands of plantains in his farm.

“Sometime in July last year, we had an incident, where the herdsmen passed through our farmland. They often normally passed through the road, but recently they started entering our farm. That day when their cattle entered, they destroyed our cassava and others crops.

“My farm manager approached them and in response they decided to attack him and inflicted a machete cut on his hand.

“We followed up this matter with the relevant agencies including the police and the Civil Defense. The Civil Defense has a unit that oversees matters of this nature and we were working with them to see who will pay for the treatment but to no avail.

“Just last week Wednesday they passed through the farm again and destroyed our plantation. The fire incident happened that they went and set fire on a farmland close to my own. It was that fire that spread to my own farm.

“When we tried to stop the fire, they launched an attack back and it looks as if their aims were to burn down the entire plantation.

“My people battle to put out the fire and when we thought the fire had been extinguished, I woke up that night to see fire again and it burnt down 400 stands of our plantation. They threatened that nobody gets close to them,” he said.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Akwa Ibom State Command, Odiko MacDon, did not answer calls made into his telephone. He did not also respond to text message, which was sent into his telephone.