A SaharaReporters correspondent dispatched to the scene learned that the 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.
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, Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State over what they called incessant killing, raping and other attacks on indigenes of the community by armed Fulani herdsmen.
A SaharaReporters correspondent dispatched to the scene learned that the 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.
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 SaharaReporters, 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.
As at the time of filing in this report, however, the women have vacated the road.
