Aggrieved women in their hundreds besieged and barricaded the East-West road during the early hours of Wednesday with planks of wood, leaves, tires and chairs.
Protesting women block road
Thousands of travelers were stranded while commercial and social activities were brought to a halt on Wednesday following the blockage of the ever busy East-West Road by protesting women from Ohorhor community in Ughelli North LGA of Delta State over what they called incessant killing, raping and other attacks on indigenes of the community by armed Fulani herdsmen.
According to SaharaReporters, the aggrieved women numbering over 100, besieged and barricaded the road during the early hours of Wednesday with planks of wood, leaves, tires and chairs.
It was gathered that travelers, including the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 5, Abubakar Mohammed, who was traveling to Yenagoa, Bayelsa State for an official assignment, were trapped in the gridlock.
All efforts to vacate the road by the AIG and other personalities and travelers en route to Port Harcourt could not yield any fruitful results, as the women insisted that unless federal government takes concrete steps to address the herdsmen attacks, they would remain on the road.
Speaking with a correspondent, one of the women leaders, who gave her name simply as Rukevwe, disclosed that the community has lost over 10 souls to the armed herdsmen while over 15 women, some of whom are pregnant, have been raped in the bush by the herdsmen.
The protesting women therefore issued a four-day ultimatum to the Fulani herdsmen to leave their community bush, saying that if they fail to adhere to the ultimatum, they shall mobilize en masse to the East-West Road with both their children and husbands.