A 53-year-old farmer, Mr. Ohiremen Isaac Odeh, has been killed by herdsmen suspected to be kidnappers after he refused to trek into the forest.

Odeh was abducted with his son, Isaac, while they were going to their farm at Ijagba community, Ose Local Government Area.

His health could not make him trek the long distance to the kidnappers’ den in the forest and he was strangled to death.

The kidnappers freed his son after they collected N400,000 ransom.

Narrating how they were abducted, Isaac said they were on their way to the farm when the kidnappers waylaid them and took them into the forest.

“My father could not run. They took us across a river but my father could not pass through. They tied our hands but they told me along. It was when I was released after we paid N400,000 ransom that I knew my father was killed. The kidnappers were Fulani but one spoke Yoruba.”

Prime Minister of Ijagba community, Mr. Sunday Ogoh, who led elders of the community on a protest march to Akure, said over 20 persons have been killed by the kidnappers in the last years.

Ogoh said the herdsmen have resorted to killing victims that could not pay ransom.

He said security has broken down in Ose Local Government adding that herdsmen have set many farms ablaze.

According to him: “This problem is not limited to Ijagba. There is general insecurity in that area. We are appealing that we need strong military base so that it will reduce incessant kidnapping and killing.

”Many people cannot go to the farms. The area has become a den of terrorists. They use the forest reserve as their base. They always kill those who could not pay ransom. Over 20 persons have been killed in the past two years.

“We have reported severally. Whenever there is an incident, we will report to the relevant agencies. Amotekun is there but their firearm cannot equate to the superior weapon of the herdsmen.

“We have vigilantes and they are trying. But we don’t have guns or bullets for vigilance. It was the vigilance group that discovered the corpse of Odeh.” (The Nation)

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