Aged women in their hundreds from four council areas of Akokoland, protested half-naked in a bid to register their anger over the spate of insecurity in the Northern senatorial district of Ondo State, raining curses on perpetrators of unending criminal activities in their communities.
Some monarchs and other stakeholders in the district had recently raised the alarm over the invasion of criminals from border towns to perpetrate crimes in their communities.
The monarchs include the Owa of Ogbagi, Oba Victor Adetona; the Oluyani of Akoko, Oba Joel Daudu and Akala of Ikaramu, Oba Andrew Momoh. However, the unending insecurity in the senatorial district of the state prompted the aged women to go half-naked to call the state government’s attention and security agencies in the state and to sound a note of warning to perpetrators of the evil acts.
They trooped to the streets in the early hours of the Saturday and converged on the Akungba Akoko junction and walked peacefully to Oka Akoko, Akungba, Ikare Akoko and some other communities.
Armed with placards of various inscriptions and brooms, the protesters, chanted various solidarity songs along the streets and cursed those disturbing the peace in the communities.
They urged relevant security agencies to save them from the rampaging herdsmen, robbers and people of criminal tendencies that have turned the areas into their abode to commit crimes.
They frowned at the rate at which crimes such as kidnapping and armed robberies were been committed in the areas without checks by the security agencies in the state.
The protesters listed several crimes perpetrated in the senatorial district within the last three months and urged the state government and the security agencies to wake from their slumber and tackle the menace.
Amongst the crimes include the kidnap of the school Principal, the vice-principal, three teachers by bandits in Auga Akoko and the demand of N35m ransom. A secondary school Principal, Joshua Adeyemi, his Vice, Ifedayo Yesufu and three other teachers, Oloyede Bukola, Adagunodo Funmilayo and Blessing Okeke were abducted while they were travelling in a blue Toyota Corolla car belonging to the school along the Auga-Ise road in Akoko North-East council area and whisked into the forest.
The protesters also expressed worries over the murder of a police sergeant while on duty in Oka, Akoko South West council area.
The women also frowned at the gruesome murder of a 78-year-old woman, Veronica Dare, at Iwaro Oka, in the Akoko Southwest council area by suspected ritual killers.
The victim, who was a member of Deeper Life Bible Church in the community, was killed in the early hours on Sunday after cleaning the church.
The killers dumped her corpse in front of the church and fled.
The protesting women also lamented the kidnap of three construction workers rehabilitating the Ikaramu/Akunnu Akoko highway in Akoko North West council area of Ondo state by gunmen. They also kicked against the kidnap of a graduate, Ade Gbodi and one other resident of the lkaramu Akoko, who were abducted by gunmen at two separate spots in the community.
