The Coalition of South East Youth Leaders, COSEYL, has given suspected killer herdsmen 48 hours to leave Imo state.
The COSEYL, president General, Goodluck Ibem, stated this in a statement to newsmen in Owerri, on Saturday.
COSEYL was referring to an attack suspected to have been carried out by herdsmen in Assa in the Ohaji/Egbema council area of the state.
The group linked it to the failure to obey the ban on open grazing by herders.
According to the Igbo group, “The attention of the Coalition of South East Youth Leaders, COSEYL, the apex sociopolitical youth group in the South East geopolitical zone has been drawn to the unlawful occupation and destruction of farmlands in Obosa Assa Community in the Ohaji/Egbeme Local Government Area of Imo State by Fulani herdsmen with their cattle whose wicked activities have brought great famine on the people as their crops have been eating up by the cows while also sending the community parking from their ancestral homes and community.
“The issue of open grazing has been banned for a long time and anyone or group of persons still involved in such outdated practice is on a wicked mission of taking the ancestral lands of the community they are staying.
“The cattle they are moving around with is just a smokescreen to cover their real wicked intentions. What are those terrorists parading as Fulani herdsmen doing with AK47 riffles and other dangerous weapons if not to kill, rape and sack the community they are staying? This madness must stop forthwith.”
“We demand that the Department of State Security, DSS, should immediately arrest those terrorists with AK47 riffles parading as Fulani herdsmen in Obosa Assa Community and we demand for payment of damages for crops and farmlands destroyed by those cows.
“We give those terrorists parading as Fulani herdsmen 48 hours to vacate the community immediately and never try or think to come back. We warn that this should be the last time we will hear such news that some herdsmen have taken over a community in Igboland. Enough said,” COSEYL said
