72 YEAR OLD WOMAN RAPED

A 72-years-old woman, Madam Victoria, yesterday narrated her experience in the hands of suspected Fulani herdsmen, who took turn to rape her in her farm in Ore in Odigbo LGA of Ondo State.

A youth group under the auspices of Ondo State Youth Coalition (OSYC) and farmers yesterday converged on Akure, the state capital, to protest the rape of Victoria and Madam Ebun in Ore.

Narrating her experience in the hands of her attackers, the septuagenarian said she was working on her farm on the fateful day when the two Fulani herdsmen took turn to rape her.

She said: 'I was working on the farm when the two men invaded my farm and before I could question them on their mission in my farm, they gagged me and tore my clothes before they raped me one after the other.

They threatened to kill me thereafter if I make any noise and they left me in the farm after injuring me." In its reaction, the group threatened to take laws into their hands if the state government failed to address the issue immediately.

The coordinator of the OSYC, Oluwatuyi Adekanmbi, said herdsmen had not only raped women and destroyed farms in the state; they had also resorted to killing, terrorising and kidnapping farmers in their farmlands.

He said: "One of our farmers, Orimisan Omowole, was murdered in his farm in Odigbo LGA of the state. After killing him, they took out his heart and placed it on his chest.

We are not against cattle rearing or saying cattle rearing should be banned but we don't want free grazing of cattle in our farms with wanton destructions of our crops and means of livelihood."