The killings became widespread and assumed Ethnic Cleansing character in 2001, during the administration of Olusegun Obasanjo. The Tiv ethnic group were the first major targets of Fulani herdsmen and their hired mercenaries. They started from Tiv villages in Kundum, Quanpan local govt area of Plateau state, and swept down into Awe, Obi and parts of Keana in Nasarawa state. The killers were always described as "unknown gunmen" (as is currently the case in Plateau state). Alago people were then brought into the crisis to give it a semblance of "communal conflict". In Taraba state, the Fulanis boldly opened another war front by killing the wife of Hon David Mtwen on her farm in the Wukari area, followed by the massacre of 7 Tiv worshipers in the NKST Church, Zege Ate, during a Holy communion preparatory service in June 2001. Here too, like in Nasarawa, Jukuns were brought in to continue with the killings. Subsequent manipulations of news on the matter which often failed to reveal the actual number of Tivs killed, and the glaring partial roles of the Nigerian Army deployed to halt the crisis in Taraba state-who couldn't save a single Tiv village in the affected areas and were severally accused by the victims of looking the other way while Tivs were being killed, exposed how insincere and unprepared the govt of the day was in attending to the crisis. And when some soldiers were killed by suspected Tiv youths in Ukum local govt-probably mistaken for the killers who normally wore Army Uniforms, the Obasanjo govt ordered one of the most brutal massacre of unarmed civilians in the history of this country. Soldiers went on killing sprees in Ukum and extended to the home of a former Chief of Army Staff, general Victor Malu-a Tiv man, in faraway Katsina-Ala local govt. The army later apologised, but thousands of Tiv lives were already lost.
From then till date, central Nigeria has not experienced peace as Fulanis in "Janjaweed" style raid homes and farmlands of villagers in the area with impunity. They no longer hide under willing tribes but merely use them along side their fighters and the foreign mercenaries who are brought into the country through the porous northern borders. In one of such gory killings which took place on September 15th. 2015 in Ibi local govt area of Taraba state, some soldiers had led a group of fulanis to search for one of their brothers who was missing, the man was found dead in the bush in an area where Tiv people have their farms, the body was moved away and the soldiers moved to wherever they had come from, Fulanis then took up arms and killed 10 Tiv villagers who were working on their farms. Three farmers still remain missing.
Below is a write-up by an individual from Plateau state who believes the killings are a Jihad being prosecuted against the people of Plateau and others in this part of the country:
BEROM MASSACRE, AN EXTENSION OF BOKO HARAM AND JIHAD IN GRAND STYLE. Posted on August 20, 2015 by Yohanna
There is no doubt that President Buhari is ever ready to govern this
country. But, while emphasis are laid on war against the Boko Haram
insurgency in the North-Eastern part of the country, is the president
doing anything different from previous administrations to address the
increasing acts of terrorism and ethnic cleansing in Plateau State?
In 2007, the late President Yar’adua inherited the Plateau crises from President Obasanjo. Between the 8th and 9th of March, 2009, the residents of Dogo Na Hauwa in Plateau State woke up to a horror beyond their wildest imagination where more than 500 women and children were gruesomely hacked to death at night by Fulani herdsmen.
This was followed by myriads of other attacks, sacking entire communities like one would an unproductive employee. The ailing president looked the other way as though Plateau State was not a federating unit in Nigeria. He did little or nothing to address the core causes of the killings besides deploying security personnel, some of whom were accused of participating in the genocides and exhibiting total indifference to the situation of the defenceless victims. In fact, they were only seen after the attacks taking statistics of damage done to lives and property like some chartered statisticians.
The Jonathan administration came with some strong words which sparked hope in 2010. But as soon as the elections were over in 2011, the killing spree resumed with a wider coverage to include Benue, Taraba, Southern Kaduna, Nassarawa and some Gbagi settlements in Abuja. The then president, who was overwhelmed by the Boko Haram insurgency seemed to have no idea of the carnage that was going on in the villages of Plateau State particularly Riyom and B/Ladi despite the deaths of serving senator, Gyang Dantong,
and Plateau Sate House of Assembly member, Gyang Danfulani. The president persisted in his ignorance of the night attacks in the villages until his exit on the 29th of May. This ushered in Baba Buhari as the Grand Commander of the Change Army who raised our hopes.
But the hopes are only proving to be transient. We are unspeakably perplexed by the coldness that characterizes Mr. President’s disposition towards the systematic, well-orchestrated and incessant massacres of Berom in the villages of Plateau State by Fulani herdsmen, officially known as “unknown gunmen”. Aside our indefatigable president only dismissing the ugly trend as “farmers/herdsmen clashes” in his most celebrated inaugural speech of “I belong to everyone, I belong to no one”, he has not brought this issue to the front burner with the view to investigating the actual causes, punishing the perpetrators and providing a long-lasting panacea to it. The eight people killed by the gaseous escape in Jos received a presidential condolence but the killings of hundreds, destruction of farms and sacking of villages in Plateau have not.
With due respect to His Excellency, it is by no means a clash when women and children are hacked to dead or shot at in their farms. It is terrorism. It is massacre. It is genocide.
While it would appear that President Yar’adua swore to a code of silence to the sustained annihilation of whole villages on the Plateau, President Jonathan seemed to have sworn to a code of ignorance. The pertinent question begging for answer is, to which of these codes has our respectable and amiable president pledged his allegiance? The presidential code of silence or the code of ignorance? Is there a hidden clause that forbids presidents from addressing the Plateau matter? Baba Buhari obviously has the political will and commands the requisite respect to end this abuse of humanity. So what is preventing him from taking immediate action as he is rightly doing with other terrorising attacks in the country?
It may, at first glance seem like this is a Plateau problem, but there were instances where, out of rage, the victims of these attacks blocked highways and attacked innocent travellers. This is by no means a justification for any act of carnage. My point is that we must not wait like we did with the issue of Boko Haram when it was at its embryonic stage, only to be proactive when it became a hydra-headed monster which sought to consume us all. With the killing of any Nigerian citizen in Nigeria or elsewhere, we lose our humanity when we stay aloof.
Those close to the president, please inform him that Plateau State needs urgent presidential attention. Community policing and collaboration have stemmed the occurrences of crises in Jos and environs, but not the unabated daily killings in the villages of Riyom, Bokkos and Barkin Ladi.
We either collectively speak as Plateau people and bring an end to these insane killings now or forever remain silent." https://fbdglobalnews.wordpress.com/2015/09/17/berom-massacre-an-extension-of-boko-haram-and-jihad-in-grand-style-posted-on-august-20-2015-by-yohanna/
Indeed, the Buhari govt's continued silence over the murderous activities of fulani herdsmen against farmers in Nigeria, particularly in central Nigeria, has already cast the shadow of the Darfur Crisis of Sudan here, and it may turn out worse if no urgent steps are taken to sincerely and boldly address the fundamental issues responsible for the killings.
#RanchTheCattle and all else will resolve themselves.
In 2007, the late President Yar’adua inherited the Plateau crises from President Obasanjo. Between the 8th and 9th of March, 2009, the residents of Dogo Na Hauwa in Plateau State woke up to a horror beyond their wildest imagination where more than 500 women and children were gruesomely hacked to death at night by Fulani herdsmen.
This was followed by myriads of other attacks, sacking entire communities like one would an unproductive employee. The ailing president looked the other way as though Plateau State was not a federating unit in Nigeria. He did little or nothing to address the core causes of the killings besides deploying security personnel, some of whom were accused of participating in the genocides and exhibiting total indifference to the situation of the defenceless victims. In fact, they were only seen after the attacks taking statistics of damage done to lives and property like some chartered statisticians.
The Jonathan administration came with some strong words which sparked hope in 2010. But as soon as the elections were over in 2011, the killing spree resumed with a wider coverage to include Benue, Taraba, Southern Kaduna, Nassarawa and some Gbagi settlements in Abuja. The then president, who was overwhelmed by the Boko Haram insurgency seemed to have no idea of the carnage that was going on in the villages of Plateau State particularly Riyom and B/Ladi despite the deaths of serving senator, Gyang Dantong,
and Plateau Sate House of Assembly member, Gyang Danfulani. The president persisted in his ignorance of the night attacks in the villages until his exit on the 29th of May. This ushered in Baba Buhari as the Grand Commander of the Change Army who raised our hopes.
But the hopes are only proving to be transient. We are unspeakably perplexed by the coldness that characterizes Mr. President’s disposition towards the systematic, well-orchestrated and incessant massacres of Berom in the villages of Plateau State by Fulani herdsmen, officially known as “unknown gunmen”. Aside our indefatigable president only dismissing the ugly trend as “farmers/herdsmen clashes” in his most celebrated inaugural speech of “I belong to everyone, I belong to no one”, he has not brought this issue to the front burner with the view to investigating the actual causes, punishing the perpetrators and providing a long-lasting panacea to it. The eight people killed by the gaseous escape in Jos received a presidential condolence but the killings of hundreds, destruction of farms and sacking of villages in Plateau have not.
With due respect to His Excellency, it is by no means a clash when women and children are hacked to dead or shot at in their farms. It is terrorism. It is massacre. It is genocide.
While it would appear that President Yar’adua swore to a code of silence to the sustained annihilation of whole villages on the Plateau, President Jonathan seemed to have sworn to a code of ignorance. The pertinent question begging for answer is, to which of these codes has our respectable and amiable president pledged his allegiance? The presidential code of silence or the code of ignorance? Is there a hidden clause that forbids presidents from addressing the Plateau matter? Baba Buhari obviously has the political will and commands the requisite respect to end this abuse of humanity. So what is preventing him from taking immediate action as he is rightly doing with other terrorising attacks in the country?
It may, at first glance seem like this is a Plateau problem, but there were instances where, out of rage, the victims of these attacks blocked highways and attacked innocent travellers. This is by no means a justification for any act of carnage. My point is that we must not wait like we did with the issue of Boko Haram when it was at its embryonic stage, only to be proactive when it became a hydra-headed monster which sought to consume us all. With the killing of any Nigerian citizen in Nigeria or elsewhere, we lose our humanity when we stay aloof.
Those close to the president, please inform him that Plateau State needs urgent presidential attention. Community policing and collaboration have stemmed the occurrences of crises in Jos and environs, but not the unabated daily killings in the villages of Riyom, Bokkos and Barkin Ladi.
We either collectively speak as Plateau people and bring an end to these insane killings now or forever remain silent." https://fbdglobalnews.wordpress.com/2015/09/17/berom-massacre-an-extension-of-boko-haram-and-jihad-in-grand-style-posted-on-august-20-2015-by-yohanna/
Indeed, the Buhari govt's continued silence over the murderous activities of fulani herdsmen against farmers in Nigeria, particularly in central Nigeria, has already cast the shadow of the Darfur Crisis of Sudan here, and it may turn out worse if no urgent steps are taken to sincerely and boldly address the fundamental issues responsible for the killings.
#RanchTheCattle and all else will resolve themselves.
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