Tension in Bayelsa community over woman’s alleged killing by Fulani herdsmen

There was palpable tension in the Opume Community of Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State as aggrieved youths protested the killing of a 39-year-old woman by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

According to the angry youths, the woman, identified as Waadu Alfred, was tied to a stake, raped and deadly machete cuts were inflicted on her body by her attackers.

PulseNets gathered that after she was declared missing at the weekend, a search party was organised by the community and they discovered her decomposing body in the bush.

The angry youths on Monday blocked the route leading in and out of the Nembe-Ogbia road, threatening to retaliate against the suspected Fulani herdsmen.

It took the intervention of the police and elders of the community before normalcy was restored.

Contacted, the spokesman of the Bayelsa Police Command, Asinim Butswat, confirmed the development and said an investigation into the incident has commenced.

It would be recalled that the Bayelsa State Government had last week confirmed a heavy shoot-out between security operatives and Fulani herdsmen in the Ogbia-Nembe axis of the state resulting in the arrest of an unspecified number of suspects and their confinement at the Okaka Correctional Centre and the seizure of 150 cows.

The Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mr David Alagoa, and the Special Adviser on Security, CP Akpoebi Agberebi (rtd.) during a meeting with a delegation of women from Otuasega community in Ogbia Local Government Area of the State, also confirmed that the neighbouring Rivers State community is the major route through which herdsmen enter the state, promising to beef up security in the area.

The State Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, who presided over the meeting, directed the chairmen of the eight local government councils to immediately set up sub-committees to work with its Anti-Open Grazing Law Implementation Committee to check the activities of errant herdsmen in the state.