Help Look For Our Member —Farmer's Association Cried Out

Kafilat Siyanbola

The Local Agricultural Association, Ayilamo has cried out that they have yet to locate one of their members, Kafilat Siyanbola, since the occurrence of the suspected armed herdsmen attack at Ayilamo and Mbachohon communities in Logo and Gwer West Local Government Areas, LGAs of Benue State, on October 17, 2023.

It was gathered that the well-armed herders who stormed the communities around 10 p.m. after people settled in their houses also left many with serious injuries.

Ayilamo town, the headquarters of Tombo ward, in Gaambetiev, is a farming and fishing community located near Anyiin, on the Abinse-Wukari federal highway in Benue State, and has been under sustained herdsmen attack since 2016.

According to a member of the association, James Ayev, they are searching for Kafilat, who happened to be the assistant secretary of the association since the night of the attack, which reportedly left no fewer than nine people dead.

"As I am speaking with you now; the whereabouts of Kafilat are still unknown to us since she fled for her life on the night of the brutal attack last October, and all efforts to trace her have been proven abominable," Ayev said.

Tracing the reason for the attack, Ayev, who is the public relations officer of the association, said the farmer's association decided to protect their lives and properties when trouble started in the area in 2017 with the invasion of some Fulani herdsmen, which led to the herdsmen cattle's wrecking havoc on their farm product, and this provoked the farmers anger.

Ayev said Kafilat led other executives to report the case to the police, and when nothing was done, because of the support of the powerful Fulani serving in the government and in the business world in the country, the farmer's association stood up to them, which led to a serious rancor that resulted in a bloodbath.

Speaking further, Ayev said some of the reports gathered indicated Kafilat's life is not safe because the herdsmen have been convinced that she was one of the sponsors of the farmer's association that repelled their various attacks on the village, and some of the farmers in the area, including her, were declared wanted by the police for their alleged role played in the wake of the attack.

He therefore called on good Nigerians to help locate Kafilat because his whereabouts have yet to be known since the incident of the deadly attack.