No fewer than 20 farmers at four farmsteads have been killed by herdsmen during night attacks in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State on Saturday.
This has been confirmed by the Spokesperson to the state Police Command, Funmilayo Odunlami-Omisanya, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
The herdsmen were said to have invaded the four communities which are less than 20 minutes to the state capital, Akure.
The communities attacked in the midnight are Aba Pastor, Aba Sunday, Ademekun Camp and Aba Alajido Camps within Ala Elefosan.
Narrating her ordeal, the Regent of one of the communities invaded, Ademekun Village, Princess Adelowo Adekemisola, disclosed that the armed herdsmen stormed her community around 12 midnight shooting sporadically for several hours without any resistance from security agents during which 14 people were killed.
She told representatives of the state government during a town hall with cocoa farmers on Monday at Adegbemile Cultural Centre, Akure, the state capital, that her community had been battling with incessant attacks by herdsmen without any actions by security agencies.
The Regent disclosed that the invaders came in through the Edo/Ondo boundary.
A source disclosed that 14 dead bodies have been recovered in the last 48 hours while search parties are still looking for other missing residents of the communities.
The source said over 20 people were gunned down during the invasion by the suspected bandits.
Spokesperson to the state Police Command said the Police and other security agencies are on the trail of the perpetrators.
In the last three months, security agencies in the state appeared to have been handicapped and overwhelmed by crime incidents.
Kidnappers have been operating in the suburbs of the state capital during which a police officer in uniform was abducted before he was rescued by his colleagues a few days later.
