Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has paid the medical bill of one Mr
Jerome Obayemi, a victim of herdsmen attack in Ojah community in Akoko
Edo Local Government Area of the state.
The Edo state governor on Thursday released N500,000 through his Chief of
Staff, Taiwo Akerele, at the Government House in Benin City.
The amount is also to provide him with relief materials, assured that
measures are being put in place to forestall clashes between farmers
and herdsmen in the state. A representative of the Okogie of Ojah clan
and the Traditional Head of Okurogho, Oba Daniel Suru Lawani, Mr Phillip
Eguarogie, told journalists that the attack was one in a series of
attacks in the community.
He explained that Obayemi narrowly escaped death on January 4 by the
group of suspected herdsmen while going to his farm. Eguarogie said,
“On January 4, there was a Fulani herdsmen attack in Ojah community. A
young man was going to the farm and saw a group of herdsmen coming
towards him. “He greeted them and they requested for food items and
money from him.
He told them in the Hausa language that he was going to the farm and
did not have food, nor money on him. “Immediately he left them, he felt
an impulse to look back. He saw that they had brought out a cutlass to
behead him. But he used his right hand to shield himself as a form of
defence and screamed. That cost him that hand. He was rushed to Poly
Clinic in Ososo by farmers who heard his call for help.”
He, however, added that the governor’s intervention would go a long way in easing the financial burden of the victim.