Attacked by Herdsmen, Detained by Police: Double ordeal of Delta cleric, farmer
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This is the story of how two men, acting to protect their livelihood and community, found themselves transformed from victims into suspects
By Ochuko Akuopha
The farmlands of Usie community in Ndokwa East Local Government Area of Delta State should be places of harvest and hope. For Rev. Francis Irikefe and Mr. Benjamin Enemuwe, they became the setting for a nightmare, one that did not end with an attacker’s cutlass but continued within the cold, unforgiving walls of a police station.
This is the story of how two men, acting to protect their livelihood and community, found themselves transformed from victims into suspects.
Months of invasion
For months, the people of Usie had lived under the shadow of a quiet invasion. Herdsmen, they alleged, had been leading their cattle onto their farms, trampling and consuming crops that represented months of labour and investments worth hundreds of thousands of naira. Occasional arrests, as gathered, would lead to paltry compensations of N20,000 or N30,000 for destruction worth ten times that amount, along with promises that were broken as soon as the next rain fell.
A fragile agreement had been reached. The herders, after one of their own was arrested, gave an undertaking to stay off the farmlands. For a brief moment, there was peace. Then the rains came again, and so did the cattle.
Attack on the farm
Trouble began when some herdsmen brought their cattle to graze on a farm belonging to Rev. Francis Irikefe. His cry for help reached Mr. Benjamin Enemuwe, a member of the Delta State Livestock Management Committee, DSLMC, the government body set up to implement the state’s anti-open grazing law.
Enemuwe began his narration: “The herdsmen have been disturbing us for a long time. So, recently, after a rainfall, one of the Reverends in our community called that I should come to the farm, that the herdsmen we took to Ashaka Police Station have started again.
“When I got to the farm, lo and behold, the herdsmen that we used to see in one or two groups were now up to five or six groups,” he said.
He approached them, his voice calm but firm, appealing to their sense of fairness. But the reaction, according to him, was immediate. Most of the younger herders who recognised Enemuwe from previous encounters at the Ashaka Police Station turned and fled. But one did not run.
Continuing, he said: “I told them to leave people’s farms and that just as their cattle business is important to them and puts money in their pockets, our cassava farms are also important to us, and they should not be doing this.
“But the one who refused to run away was an older man carrying a cutlass and a stick. Before we knew it, he attacked me with his cutlass and inflicted a cut. When I saw blood coming out, I started shooting, and he ran away.”
From victim to detainee
Bleeding but determined, Enemuwe and his companion did what they believed was the right thing. They reportedly gathered the stray cattle and led them to the community primary school to prevent further destruction, and thereafter proceeded to the Ashaka Police Division to report the assault.
On reaching the station, he said: “I got to the police station that night to report the incident. As I was talking to an Inspector, he got a call instructing that those boys who came to complain should be detained. They said they fired some shots. They are suspects.
“That was how they detained us. Thankfully, Mr. Matthew Ujene (DSLMC Coordinator in Delta North), the councillor representing our ward, and other well-wishers intervened, and we were later bailed.”
Enemuwe said he was thereafter given a police report to seek medical treatment, but the trauma of that night would not heal as easily as the wound on his hand.
I was handcuffed — Rev. Irikefe
Rev. Irikefe’s account adds a deeply disturbing layer to the story. He lamented that the herdsmen had been terrorising the area and destroying crops. He disclosed that the son of one of the cattle owners had earlier been arrested and taken to the police station for destroying farmlands in the community.
However, speaking on the incident that led to their detention, he explained that while they were on their way to make the report, they received a call that two of the herdsmen had come to the community, sent by their “Oga” to make peace so the impounded cows could be released.
That appeared to be a sign of detente.
He said when they relayed this to the police, the initial instruction was to have the herders brought in for detention. But the script changed without warning.
“The next thing, the police officer changed the matter and said a call came from Abuja that we should be detained because we had been shooting guns in the community,” he said.
“I told them I am a pastor, but they said a call came from Abuja. They detained us till the next morning. They handcuffed me, and Benjamin, who had an injury on his hand, was also detained.
“As we stepped out, the DPO saw me and shouted, ‘Reverend!’ and ordered them to remove the handcuffs. He said he never knew that I was the one arrested.”
One-week ultimatum
Mr. Matthew Ujene, the DSLMC Coordinator who hails from the community, stepped in to unravel the situation. His findings pointed to a case of mistaken identity fuelled by false information.
“It was discovered that the detention of the cleric and Benjamin Enemuwe was as a result of false information given to the police by someone in the community,” he said.
With tensions running high, he said a community meeting was swiftly convened at the palace of the Onotukun of Usie, where a one-week ultimatum was issued to all herders to remove their cattle from the community.
Police speak
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer for the Delta State Command, Mr. Bright Edafe, gave the official position of the Force.
“They were initially arrested because they took the law into their own hands instead of reporting to the police as stipulated,” he said.
For Rev. Irikefe and Benjamin Enemuwe, however, the line between taking the law into their own hands and protecting their livelihood from armed invaders remains painfully blurred.
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