The Ondo State Security Network Agency, better known as Amotekun has again evicted 137 northerners from the state forest reserve.
Those evicted were occupying the Elegbeka forest reserve along Ifon-Owo Road.
Governor Rotimi Akeredolu had in February ordered herdsmen to vacate the state’s forest reserves within seven days.
Apart from ejecting the herdsmen, the governor also banned underage grazing, night grazing, and movement of cattle within the cities and highways.
Speaking with journalists in Akure, the state commander of Amotekun, Chief Adetunji Adeleye described herdsmen’s continued occupation of the forest reserves as a security threat to the state.
Adeleye said all the illegal forest occupants would be escorted out of the state to wherever they came from.
He said, “We got an Intelligence report that very many people bombarded (forests at) Elegbeka–Ifon area in the state.
“We moved in and questioned the majority of them and they said they were from the northern part of the country. We asked for their mission, they were not able to give us a clear-cut (explanation) of what they were here for.
“We brought some of them (to Akure) and their sponsors here to the headquarters (of Amotekun) for proper investigation. We profiled them and found out that they were conniving with some persons in Ose to be given space for settlement in the government’s forest reserve which makes them illegal occupants in the forest reserve.”
The chairman said, “We are sending them back to where they claimed they came from.”
This comes a few days after the government evacuated 42 suspected invaders, who were arrested by Amotekun at Okitipupa, the headquarters of Okitipupa Local Government Area of the state.
The suspected invaders who hailed from Kano and Jigawa states claimed that they were invited to the state by an agent who will engage them as security guards to monitor and guide pipelines in the state.
