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As soon as Biodun Sango, a resident of Ashaga village in Yewa North LGA of Ogun, began to hear the uninterrupted echoes of gunshots and piercing screams at his farm, his mind ran amok. Immediately, he dropped his hoes, cutlasses, and began to run home. Sango had told his nursing wife, who had given birth to twins the previous day, that he would be going to the farm to harvest some crops, and would return by nightfall. But he could no longer wait to complete his work at the farm.
At the roadside bamboo shed where Sango and seven men sat with their motorcycles, they appeared restless, monitoring every movement across the road. They drive from Benin Republic to Ashaga in the afternoons and return as soon as it is 6pm.“Only the men are coming back to the village. Mind you, we have not returned fully. We only come in the afternoon and return to Benin before evening.
On the evening of February 14, when the world was celebrating Valentine’s Day, suspected herders numbering about 40 stormed Asa, one of the villages in Yewa North. In less than 30 minutes, they had left a trail of blood and destruction in the community. But 50-year-old Kehinde Gbadamosi was not as lucky as others. He was shot dead and burnt in the house where he was captured. His remains were buried at the back of the torn-down building.
“We have the Hohori and some Eguns who come from time to time to lease farmland in Yewaland, live with us and they have been doing that for years. So, when the problem and conflict started, the natural thing is for them to return to their home country… so, it is not as if Yewa people have relocated, we don’t have a refugee crisis in Yewa.”
When Sunday Oguntosin, a 65-year-old retired teacher from Idigbo, heard the state’s claim, his jaw dropped. Staring at the people beside him, he blurted out: “But that is a lie. I was born here. I’m a retired teacher. I just came back to this village yesterday since I took my family to Pobe, Benin Republic, in January.“My younger brother, Adebayo Oguntosin, just 25 years old, was killed by the herders at Owode-Ketu. You cannot expect me to stay and let them kill me too.
“When we started hearing guns, we jumped out of the house and began to run. We didn’t take anything. We got to Abule-Oja village, but we didn’t wait there because we fear they could come to attack us. We came straight to Iganna the same day. The government of Benin Republic has been feeding us. They give us rice and good water. We don’t know when we will return. Not until we are sure that we can sleep peacefully with our two eyes closed,” Akapo said.
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