A 34 year-old man, Mr Ehis Akhigbe, has vowed not to return to his country Nigeria after he escaped being killed by gun wielding Fulani herdsmen.
Akhigbe fled his Oke village in Edo State in April 2015 after his mother was killed by the Fulani men in February of the same year.
Born on 4 August 1991, Akhigbe narrated that his mother, a farmer, was killed by the Fulani herdsmen in her farm.
He said: “That day, I went to the farm to pick my mother with my motorcycle, because before she left the house early in the morning around 5a.m. because the farm was far from the village.
“That’s her routine. Sometimes, I will take her to the farm but that morning, she informed me that when there is about 2 to 3 hours to finish, she will call me to pick her up; that was the plan.
“So, that day of this incident, she called me to start come and pick her and I told her I was on my way.
On arriving at the farm, I heard noises, so I had to stop my motorbike and moved closer without any noise from me.
“I found my mother lying in a pool of her blood naked and gasping for breath. I asked her what happened but all she could was ‘Fulani herdsmen.’
“She then said ‘please take good care of yourself’ and died.”
Akigbe said further that at that time, he was confused but as he was about leaving the farm to go and inform the villagers, he saw two of the herdsmen and their mood showed they were the ones who killed his mother.
He recollects: “They were walking around with guns and guiding their cattles to eat people’s crops. I tried to stop them, they noticed that I was beside the woman they just killed.
“One of them threatened to shoot me but I begged them to let me go since they have already killed my mother. He said I too will die.
“I realized that they were serious and should act fast since I was holding my cutlass. I had to distract them by telling them that someone was approaching.
“As one of them turned around, I rushed and stabbed the other in the stomach. Immediately he feel down, his partner ran away.
“I quickly picked up the weapon from him but I noticed that he was not dead. I didn’t have the heart to stab him once more.
“I mounted my motorcycle and went straight to my village to inform our people who went and retrieved my mother’s corpse.
“When they returned, they told me that the Fulani herdsmen I stabbed did not survive. I was very afraid that the matter would be reported to the police.
“Two days after the incident, I was summoned by the police. My uncle and father told me that I shouldn’t go because some police officers who often colluded with the herdsmen for gratification might turn against me and no one will come to bail me.
“I ran away and left the country because it was no longer save for me.
“I crossed the desert into Libya but life was horrible there. But I managed to work and saved some money and crossed the sea to Europe.
“I learnt that things started getting worse as the Fulani herdsmen and were looking for me even after I left my village to the state capital, Benin City.
“On October 18, 2022, my father died in the same hands of the Fulani herdsmen.
“Our villagers informed me that he was also killed in his farm when the Fulani herdsmen came looking for me. My sister who was in the farm with him was seriously injured.
From his hideout outside the country, Akhigbe sent words that he was afraid to come back home.
“Today, I don’t even know the whereabout of my siblings. Going back to Nigeria to look for and reunite with them is a big risk for me,” he said.