Benin-City — In what looks like a replica of the Aba women riot of November 1929, women in Ekpoma, Edo State took to the streets on Thursday to protest the alleged killing of a 57 year-old mother of six, Mrs Margaret Odiamehi. Hell was let loose when the women, who were at the market, learnt that their colleague had been raped and murdered in the farm by suspected herdsmen. The murder brings to six the number of women murdered in the area in the last two by alleged herdsmen.
The tension caused by the latest killing in Ekpoma forced Governor Godwin Obaseki to said his deputy, Philip Shaibu, the state Commissioner of Police, Haliru Gwandu and the state Director of DSS, Aliru Ibrahim, to the university town to bring the situation under control. Killings linked to herdsmen are becoming worrisome in Edo as none of the suspects has been arrested by the police. Women in several communities in Edo North and Central in particularly no longer go to farm alone due to fear of being killed. It is within this context that you will likely understand the mood on Wednesday, when members of the state House of Assembly commenced the debate on the bill for a law establishing Grazing Control Agency to check the activities of herdsmen in the state. The bill sponsored by the lawmaker representing Ovia North East Constituency 11, Mr Bright Osayande, elicited unanimous condemnation of the activities of herdsmen in Edo by the lawmakers, who lamented low food production across the state due to the activities of herdsmen.
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