The Department of State Services (DSS) has stopped residents of State Housing Estate, Igba in Ondo Town, Ondo State, from sending herdsmen destroying their farms out of their estate.

The instruction was handed down to the estate residents on Monday when they visited the DSS office in Bolorunduro, along Akure-Ondo Road, to honour an invitation to one of them, after the residents told herdsmen destroying their land to vacate the estate.

The resolution to vacate the estate was reached after the residents could no longer bear the four-year-long destruction to their farms, which had led to clashes on a number of occasions.

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“The DSS official who addressed us said the invitation was for the purpose of peace-making and not to arrest anyone,” a resident, who was at the meeting, told FIJ.

“Without mincing words however, the official told us that our wish for the herdsmen to vacate our estate is not possible under Nigerian laws.”

In moving forward, FIJ gathered the residents were advised by the DSS to draw a guideline that would clearly state the places the herders are allowed to take their cattle to for grazing from the places they are not permitted to get to.

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“At the meeting, we were also assured that if their herds destroy any of our farms in the future, the herdsmen will be made to pay for the destruction,” another resident said.

“More importantly, the activities of the past few days in our estate is a clear indication that this people are well connected.”

It was also agreed at the meeting that the herders are no longer allowed to graze at night within the estate, as a violation of the rule would be frowned upon.

Part of the efforts the residents had made in the past was to invite officers of the Western Nigeria Security Network, popularly called the Amotekun, to come to their rescue.

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The invitation of the Amotekun officers and the subsequent meeting the residents had with the traditional ruler of Igbo-Oja, a neighbouring community that was also suffering from the activities of the herdsmen, led to the initial resolution that the cattle breeders would have to leave the environment.

When the resolution was eventually communicated to the representatives of the herdsmen, an executive member of the Estate Residents’ Association got summoned by the Ondo State office of the DSS through a phone call laden with subtle threats.