Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Women farmers in Ejamah community in Eleme local government area of Rivers State, on Tuesday, staged a peaceful protest over the incessant destruction of their crops by herdsmen and their cattle.
They lamented that cattle herders trespass on their farms with impunity and massively destroy crops to which they have devoted their energy and life savings to plant and tend.
The women who walked on some major roads in the community carried their protest to the Eleme Police Station where they cried and complained bitterly.
The women carried twigs, branches of cassava plants, remnants of crops allegedly destroyed by cows.
They also carried placards with varying inscriptions lamenting that the proceeds from the harvests were what they used to feed their families and pay their children’s school fees.
They stated that unless something urgently is done to check the excesses of herders, the people of the Ejamah community will be driven into penury.
One of the women who gave her name as Madam Martha Ollor said the farmers watched helplessly as some herdsmen allegedly fed their cows with their farm crops.
“We are left with nothing as our months of toiling are consumed by cows within minutes and hours. We are hungry and jobless after herders fed their cows with our crops”.
The Women appealed to the Local Government Council and state and Federal Governments to urgently intervene to help protect Ejamah farmlands as they are scared of farming again due to the massive destruction of their crops by herdsmen who are mostly armed with dangerous weapons.
It would be recalled that the immediate past administration of Nyesom Wike had a policy against open grazing of animals, especially cows.
Both the State and local governments were yet to react to the protest and the allegation of destruction of farmlands by herdsmen and their cows.