Ado-Ekiti — Following the alleged murder of a cocoa merchant in Ilawe-Ekiti in Ekiti State on Saturday by yet-to-be identified killers, some parents yesterday besieged primary schools in the community to withdraw their children/ wards home, saying the atmosphere was no longer safe.

Our correspondent reports that farmers also avoided their farms because of fear. Daily Trust gathered that when journalists visited Ilawe community, some primary school pupils were seen returning home before the usual closing hour.

It would be recalled that unknown persons at the weekend hacked Mr. Ropo Eniafe, a cocoa merchant, while working on his farm located in Imonlojo, less than five kilometres from Ilawe.

Our correspondent reports that at the home of the deceased in Afunremu area of Oke-Imedo in Ilawe-Ekiti, sympathisers were seen trooping in and out.

Younger brother to the deceased, Boluwaji Eniafe, told newsmen that the deceased's wife, Funke, rushed to him on Saturday morning to inform him that her husband had not returned from the farm since Friday morning. He added upon hearing the news, he informed a search party, which later discovered the corpse of his brother in the pool of blood.

Boluwaji lamented that his brother, who left behind four kids and a wife, might have been killed by armed robbers, who according to him have been terrorising the community in the past few weeks.

"He must have run into the armed robbers who were escaping after robbing. They must have killed him based on assumption that he saw them," he said.