Supreme Egbesu Congress joins farmers in protest against open grazing

Nathan Tamarapreye, Yenagoa

Comrade Teimowei Ebi, the Leader of Supreme Egbesu Congress led aggrieved women of Yenizue-Gene and Okutukutu communities in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State to barricade the Melford Okilo road protesting against alleged rape, harassment and destruction of crops and farmlands by the Fulani herdsmen

For several hours today, the protesters halted vehicular movement. They laid siege on the usually busy road by erecting canopies and chairs where they displayed their cassava tubers and plants destroyed by cows.

Speaking at the protest venue, Ebi, Leader of the Supreme Egbesu Congress, expressed his grievances over the incident, describing it as a declaration of war by the herders.

He alleged that the political class who are said to be owners of this cattle should restrain their Fulani workers from this humanitarian destruction, that if nothing is done soon, youths might be forced to protect the farmland of their aged mothers whose only source of livelihood is farming.

In his words: we might be forced to take laws into our hands. It seems the government is failing to protect her citizens from this nightmare,” he said.

He urges Ijaw people to start having vigilante groups just to protect their bushes from intruders.

He beckoned on the Bayelsa State Government to take responsibility and implement the anti open grazing law effectively before things get out of hand.

The angry women rebuffed the entreaties of the police to dismantle the blockade, insisting that the state anti open grazing law be implemented to the letter and the offending herders brought to justice.

According to one of the protesters who pleaded to be anonymous, an elderly woman was recently raped on her farm by the herders who had taken over their forest.

She regretted this sad narrative is occurring in the 21st century when there is technology to addressing the maintenance.

Armed with placards some of which read: “They are raping our women, government help us”, “Protest we don’t fight cow, “Govt help us remove cows from our farms”, “They are harvesting our cassava to feed their cows:

One of the protesters, Madam Gift, a mother of three, lamented the hardship they are going through at the hands of the rampaging herders saying “Many of our people have stopped going to their farms because of the constant attacks and destruction of their farms by the herdsmen.”

Also, Bonus Wombu, the Provost Marshal of Oguan, a retiree, decried what he described as the inability of the government to protect them from the marauding herdsmen.

He said: “As a retiree, I have many farms in the bush, but as I speak with you, my only source of livelihood has been destroyed.

“Sadly, the Bayelsa state government enacted the anti-open grazing law sometime in 2021, but sadly the government is not doing enough to protect our people. The government should implement the law they have enacted.”

The Secretary to the State Government, Commissioner for Agriculture and Commissioner of Police, Bayelsa State Command, CP Alonyenu Idu, prevailed on the protesters to remove the blockade.

Prof Beke Sese, Commissioner of Agriculture explained that the government had exhausted the peaceful approach and would resort to the use of force to ensure compliance with the law.

Meanwhile, the Bayelsa government has summoned the Traditional Rulers, Youth Leaders and Women Leaders of impacted communities across the state to a meeting on Wednesday to be presided over by the Deputy Governor of Bayelsa