Some residents of State Housing Estate, Igba in Ondo Town, Ondo State, have arrived at the office of the Department of State Services (DSS) in Bolorunduro, along Akure-Ondo Road, to honor an invitation to one of them after the residents told herdsmen destroying their land to vacate the estate. For four years, residents of the estate had been enduring the destruction of their farms by herders, sometimes leading to clashes between residents and herders. The estate is still in its developmental stage, with most residents yet to make full use of the plots of land they purchased from the Ondo State Government.
“We have not been allowed any peace as a result of the destruction the herders cause with their cattle,” one resident told us on Sunday. The estate association eventually invited the Western Nigeria Security Network, popularly called the Amotekun, to come to their rescue. Subsequently, after a meeting of estate residents with the traditional ruler of Igbo-Oja, a nearby community, it was agreed that the only reasonable solution left was to ask the herders to leave the estate.
They communicated the outcome of the meeting to the herdsmen, only for an executive member of the Estate Residents’ Association to get summoned by the Ondo State office of the DSS through a phone call laden with subtle threats.
“I am sure the invitation he got is because we have asked the herdsmen to leave our estate,” said a resident. “This is actually a state-owned estate, and ordinarily, the law of the estate does not even permit residents to keep animals. And if you must rear animals, it must be done in a confined area built by you, and on your property. You don’t go about destroying other people’s crops and farm produce like you own the entire place!”
Seven estate residents got to the DSS office at exactly 9:50 am on Monday, down by three from the 10 of them who had said on Sunday that they would join the invited exco member in solidarity.
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