Protest in Ekiti as Fulani herdsmen kill hunter

There was protest in Orin Ekiti in Ekiti State as men suspected to be Fulani herdsmen killed a hunter.

This came barely as a female undergraduate was murdered in her father’s farm in Ise Ekiti, Ekiti State.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the victim was Mr Emmanuel Ilori, a hunter and rice farmer at Orin Ekiti in the Ido-Osi Local Government Area of the state.

Residents said that Ilori was killed late Friday by gunmen described as Fulani herdsmen while he was hunting with his colleagues.

One of the hunters, Adeniyi Ajayi, said that Ilori’s killers were Fulani herdsmen and that they were more than 20.

“The killers opened fire when we queried them on their mission in the farming community,” he said.

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Ajayi added that the herdsmen had been staying in forests in the community for long, terrorising farmers and other people in the community.

Ilori’s body had been taken away by security agents after the incident was reported to them.

The killing sparked protests among residents of Orin Ekiti as they made bonfires and rained curses on Ilori’s killers.

They pleaded with Governor Kayode Fayemi of the state to do everything to end the incessant killings.

Chairman of Rice Farmers in Ekiti State, Mr Kolawole Rotimi, told NAN that a pregnant woman was similarly killed by herdsmen in Orin Ekiti last year.

Just a few hours before Ilori’s murder, a 20-year-old undergraduate from Benue State was murdered in Ise Ekiti, Ise/Orun Local Government Area of Ekiti State, by suspected gunmen while working in her father’s farm on Thursday.

The victim, identified as Maria, was a student of one of the tertiary institutions in the state.

The Ochi Idoma and head of Idoma people living in Ekiti State, Otache Oyigoche, said the body of the lady was found in the pool of her blood on the farm.

He also said that Maria was an undergraduate in one of the institutions of higher learning in the country and had come home for a break before she met her untimely death.

According to him, “the lady had gone to the farm in the morning only for her body to be found in the farm later in the day.

“The community is yet to ascertain the reason for her murder and how it was carried out.”

The Public Relations Officer of the Ekiti State Police Command, DSP Caleb Ikechukwu, who confirmed the murder of the hunter, said that everything was being done by the command to apprehend the killers.

DSP Ikechukwu, however, said he had not been briefed about the incident involving the female undergraduate.