Barely a week after some assailants attacked Iyemero Ekiti in Ikole local government and killed two persons, combined security forces deployed to the area, on Friday arrested two suspected herders in connection with the attacks and killings.
Within the last two months, the suspected herders had attacked a farmstead, Eda at Iyemero five times and raided the village.
The Olu of Iyemero, Oba Ebenezer Ogungbemi, disclosed that the sinister motive of the assailants was to sack the residents, who are predominantly farmers and take over the land.
Sequel to the killing, Governor Kayode Fayemi ordered immediate construction of police station in the town.
Fayemi also ordered deployment of military JTF, comprising combined forces of security agencies and local hunters to patrol the town up to its boundary with Kwara and Kogi states.
Explaining how they were arrested, the head of local hunters in the town, Mr Jimoh Eisikin said they were arrested by his men around 1am on Friday.
He said the local hunters working with the security agencies laid ambush for them at Eda and arrested them while on a mission to attack the village.
“These herders had been raping our women and killing our people in the last six months.
“During the onslaught leading to their arrest yesterday, two of our village hunters were macheted by the evil doers. But for the fact that we were prepared, we got them arrested after chasing them into the bush.
“We brought them to Iyemero and tied them down at the village square with close security monitoring,” he said.
Oba Ogungbemi was said to have called the Police Commissioner, Mr. Asuquo Amba, who sent his men to arrest them and brought the culprits to Ado Ekiti.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti Command, Mr Caleb Ikechukwu, said those arrested were being detained at the police headquarters.
“Our men have begun investigation into their case and they will be charged to court upon conclusion of our investigation”, he said.