The people of Ikot Ediet in Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State have bemoaned the effects of the presence of cattle rearers on their farmlands.

In a chat with Kristina Reports, Chief of the community, Friday Umo Ekot expressed utter sadness and despair over the consistent infiltration of their farms by cattle readers who have no regard for the hard work put into planting and maintaining these farms.

He explained that the constant destruction of their farmlands over the last three years has brought untold hardship to the people as there is not enough to feed on as well as sell due to the destruction of crops such as yam, cassava, melon, maize, pumpkin, cucumber, yams, etc by the cattle.

“Cattles have been destroying the farmlands and crops of our women, widows and even youths in the village. Feeding the family and paying children’s school fees has become a big challenge and burden to many families following the destruction of our farms.”

The village head complained that these attacks have greatly affected the lives of the indigenes of the area and has changed the status quo of a lot of families in the community and has sown the seed of despair in the lives of members of the community. He called on the government of the state to swing into action and save the community.

“So many people, as a result of the cattle destroying their cassava farms, have abandoned the farms instead of wasting their efforts on something that will not be harvested in the future.”

A widow, Margaret Umoren, whose farm has been attacked recently, has expressed utter sadness about the situation as her farm and everything she planted was destroyed by the cattle. She joined the village head to appeal to the government to show up for them.

“We are calling on the state government and security agencies to come to our rescue. As a widow with so many responsibilities, I do not have any other trade than farming but the ugly experience is that I can no longer go to my farms because of the annoying occupation of our farmland and the destruction of my crops…”

She and other members of the community, pray and hope that normalcy returns to their village soon