Six people have been killed in separate attacks on four communities in the Ose Local Government Area (LGA) of Ondo State.
The attack followed attempts by some farmers to fend off herders from destroying their crops.
The Nation reports that many houses, cars, and motorcycles were burned during the attack, while the families of the victims killed some cows in retaliation.
A community leader, Mr. Owolafe Folorunsho, said the herders continually invaded their farmlands at night and harvested their crops to feed their animals.
“They will come during the day, force us to uproot the cassava by ourselves at gunpoint, and ask us to cut them into pieces to feed their cows.
“In order not to take laws into our hands, we reported this act of economic sabotage to the appropriate authority, which took prompt action to chase them out of the farming areas, only for the herders to return and attack us with dangerous whips.
“The terrorists laid an ambush, attacked some traders coming from Akure, and killed all the occupants before taking their money and setting the car ablaze.”
A leader of the affected communities, Oba Rotimi Obamuwagun, said the herders destroyed four hectares of a cassava farm belonging to one of his subjects, who borrowed money at a high interest rate from a commercial bank to finance the farm.
The Odibiado of Ijagba, Oba Andrew Ikioya Ilevare, said the bandits had now resorted to harvesting plantains and bringing them to the market to sell.
The chairman of the local government, Prince Adekunle Dennis, who visited the communities, said something would be urgently done to checkmate the excesses of the herdsmen.
Dennis said he would meet with the relevant authorities and stakeholders for the purpose of redesigning the security architecture of the locality.
He charged the youths to improve their intelligence information gathering so that they could prevent a recurrence.
The council boss said efforts were on to recover the four camps, Molege, Ugboruwen, Elerinta, and Adedigba, from the terrorists.
Ondo Police spokesman Funmilayo Odunlami said policemen had been deployed to the area.
