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There was a protest in Orin Ekiti in Ekiti State on Sunday over the killing of hunter by men suspected to be Fulani herdsmen.
This came barely 24 hours after a female undergraduate was murdered in her father’s farm in Ise Ekiti.
The protesters made bonfires on the roads in the community while raining curses on the killers of the hunter.
Residents pleaded with Governor Kayode Fayemi of the state to do everything within his power to end the incessant killings.
NAN reports that the slain hunter was identified as Mr. Emmanuel Ilori, who was also a rice farmer at Orin Ekiti in the Ido-Osi Local Government Area of the state.
Residents said Ilori was killed on Friday evening by gunmen they suspected to be Fulani herdsmen while he was hunting with his colleagues.One of the hunters, Adeniyi Ajayi, said Ilori’s killers were Fulani herdsmen and that they were more than 20.
“The killers opened fire when we queried them on their mission in the farming community,” he said.
Ajayi added that the herdsmen had been staying in forests in the community for long, terrorising farmers and other people in the community.
Ilori’s body was taken away by security agents after the incident was reported to authorities.
Chairman of Rice Farmers in Ekiti State, Mr. Kolawole Rotimi told NAN that a pregnant woman was similarly killed by herdsmen in Orin Ekiti last year.
Few hours before Ilori’s murder, a 20-year-old undergraduate from Benue State was murdered in Ise Ekiti, Ise/Orun Local Government Area while working on her father’s farm on Thursday.
The victim, identified as Maria was a student of one of the tertiary institutions in the state.
The Ochi Idoma and head of Idoma people living in Ekiti State, Otache Oyigoche disclosed that the body of the lady was found in the pool of her blood on the farm.
According to him, “the lady had gone to the farm in the morning only for her body to be found in the farm later in the day.
“The community is yet to ascertain the reason for her murder and how it was carried out.”
The Police Public Relations Officer(PPRO), Ekiti Command, DSP Caleb Ikechukwu, who confirmed the hunter’s murder said that everything was being done by the command to apprehend the killers.
Ikechukwu, however, said he had not been briefed about the incident involving the female undergraduate.