The Senior Special Assistant to the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel on Marketing and Brand Management, Mr. Ime Uwah, has raised an alarm over the alleged invasion of his farm by herdsmen.
He said the farmland located along Airport road was first invaded by the herdsmen in July 2020 and again on 10th February 2021.
Uwah recalled that during last year’s invasion, his farm manager challenged them and the herdsmen out of anger cut off his hand.
He said in the latest incident of 10th February 2021, the herdsmen set fire on another farm near his own and the fire spread and consumed over 400 stands of plantains in his farm.
He said “sometime in July, last year, we had an incident where the herdsmen passed through our farmland. They will normally pass through the road, but recently they started entering into our farm. That particular day when their cattle entered there, they destroyed our cassava and other crops.
“My farm manager approached them and in response, they decided to attack him and cut his hand. We followed up this matter with the relevant agencies including the Police and the Civil Defense. The Civil Defense has a unit that oversees matters of this nature and we were working with them to see who will pay for the treatment but to no avail.
“Just last week Wednesday they passed through the farm again and destroyed our plantation. The fire incident happened that they went and set fire on farmlands close to my own. It was that fire that spread to my own farm. When we tried to stop the fire, they launched an attack and it looked as if they aimed to burn down the entire plantation.
“My people battled to put out the fire and when we thought the fire had been extinguished, I woke up that night to see another fire and it burnt down 400 stands of our plantation. They threatened that nobody gets close to them.”
However, the state Police Command is yet to confirm the alleged invasion by the herdsmen as its spokesperson, Odiko Macdon, did not pick his calls at press time.
