Hear them: "So they should give us land so that we can practice our
occupation.” He said contrary to beliefs in some quarters land trespass
has been the source of Fulani and farmers crisis in Benue, it was rather
cattle rustling, youth unemployment and what he called rural banditry,
wondering why there was (no) pending cases of land trespass in any law
court in the state. “I challenge the Benue State Government to tell us
how many court cases that have to do with trespass on land are before
the courts in Benue? Or is it that they don’t have faith in the
judiciary that they don’t take cases there? “So, it’s not a question of
trespass on land, that’s just the truth. I want people to understand
that these conflicts we are having year in and year out, the major
drivers are not on trespass on land. Rather, the drivers are cattle
rustling, rural banditory, youth unemployment and desperate politicians
that want to create crisis so they can sustain themselves in power, “he
added."
FULL TEXT BELOW:
- Why Nigerian Fulani won’t accept ranching — Miyetti-Allah
(By Joseph Erunke ABUJA)
THE Fulani in Nigeria have said they will not accept cattle ranching
because the country’s geographical location was not suitable for it.
Besides, the Fulani said the species of cows they had, as subsistence
livestock farmers, were not good for ranching in the country, saying
they could only be confined to ranching if their livestock were replaced
with breeds suitable for it. This was even as they said the anti-open
grazing laws being established by state governments would die a natural
death like ‘political sharia law’ in Zamfara. According to them, the
laws are being used as campaigns by some people to win votes in 2019
elections. Addressing newsmen, yesterday, in Abuja, through their
socio-cultural association under the aegis of Miyetti-Allah Kautal Hore,
the Fulani insisted that events in history showed that ranching was not
practicable in Nigeria and to this end, urged the Federal Government to
immediately stop state governments from enacting anti-open grazing
laws. National Secretary of Miyetti-Allah Kautal Hore, Saleh Alhassan,
who read the association’s prepared speech to newsmen at the event,
called on the Federal Government to stop state governments, especially
Benue and Taraba states, from going ahead with implementing the laws. He
said: “The whole experiment of ranching in Nigeria is a total failure,
you can google it, it’s there on the Internet for everyone to see. “
Right from the 70s,the old Gongola State had experimented ranching, the
same with Kaduna State and even the old Plateau State. All the ranches
collapsed because the geographical location of this country is not
suitable for ranching. “In places where there are successful ranching in
the world, the volume of rain per annum in those areas is at least four
to seven months, that’s why you have grasses that can naturally be
sustained. “At the same time, you must have the necessary breeds that
will support even ranching. The current breeds we have in this country
cannot be supported by ranching. “Anywhere you keep these volume of cows
we have now, for two weeks, they will eat out everything and you will
have ecological disaster, “he said. Alhassan said the purpose of the
briefing, coming barely a week after the previous one, was to further
reassert the position of the Fulani on the anti-grazing laws enacted by
state governors and their opposition to it. He said: “ We view the
anti-grazing law as an agenda to destroy our means of livelihood by
visionless and desperate politicians. “Anti-grazing laws are nothing but
populist agenda designed by visionless and desperate politicians to
destroy our means of livelihood. “This dangerous gambit must be nib in
the bud by the federal government through the security agencies as it
portends great danger to the cooperate existence of the country. “These
laws are oppressive and negative and are fundamentally against our
culture as Fulani pastoralists, against our economic interest and
against the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. “ It is
important to note that inter-state movement of pastoralists is similar
to inter-state commerce and it is only the National Assembly that can
legislate on that aspect as captured in item 62 of the exclusive
legislative list. So no state governor can decide to stop movement of
pastoralists because that is their own form of commerce. So, they have
gone against the constitution. “The laws do not take into cognisance our
sociology, our economic interest, our production patterns, climate
variations and factors that pushed pastoralists into these migrations.
These migrations are not picnics, they are detected by ecological needs.
“It is a common knowledge that the primitive form of agriculture
practiced in Benue and Taraba states and indeed all over the country, is
not consonant with global best practices. “ So why singling out the
pastoralists and insist that they must ranch which is the global best
practice? That’s out argument. “If the whole agricultural policy, the
whole development of agriculture in Nigeria is still at this primitive
stage, you cannot single out the herders who are also farmers that they
must practice global best practice, it’s not possible.” Alhassan
insisted that Benue State government breached the constitution by
stopping open grazing, given that the River Benue Basin, its tributaries
and lakes were under the control of the federal government. “Again,
very fundamentally,the River Benue and the tributaries and also the
international routes and roads that pass through Benue don’t belong to
Benue State Government, they belong to the Federal Government. Benue
State Government has no jurisdiction over River Benue, its tributaries,
the lakes, the river basins, they are all federal government’s. So how
do you now start to legislate to say ‘you are going to stop access to
those natural resources?’ “Between January and and early May,is when
pastoralists move to the river basins because that is the peak of dry
season and most of the rivers pastoralists use to water their animals
dried up and they now move towards the River Benue. “So designing a
policy that will exclude the herders completely is wrong, what they
should have done is to have restricted areas for the herders and then
give them access to grazing corridors and watering points during those
peak periods of dry season. “As cultivation comes up during the rainy
season, these people naturally migrate northwest. So, it’s detected by
climatic changes. That’s why we are saying it’s not possible, the law
will not work because it’s not well thought out. “Then for you to create
a ranch, the environmental impact assessment must be done on the areas
earmarked for the ranch, and it must not take a minimum of two to three
seasons. That’s to say you must do studies during the wet season, do
studies during the dry season and then repeat it so that you compare
before you can say this place is suitable for a ranch. “So ranch is
technologically driven, it’s capital intensive and it’s not practicable
for this kind of subsistence farmers we have, the livestock farmers are
subsistence farmers. It’s just like saying nobody will cultivate his
land if he doesn’t own a tractor, so how many people will go to farm? “
So, it’s not that we don’t want to respect law and order but when you
make an impossible laws, then you are not creating peace. You are either
deliberately attempting to provoke conflict for either political
reasons or you are being hoodwinked and deceived by desperate political
advisers just probably because they want to get money out of you, they
make you create laws that will create conflict.” The Miyetti-Allah
Kautal Hore scribe continued:”In particular, the Benue Valley which has
been causing problem in land resources, we have issue of population and
nature and pattern of settlement. It’s not just the herders that can be
blamed for it. “If you look at it typically, the Tiv people have the
culture of nomadic farming, if they farm this year here, the next year
they move to another location and their culture of reproduction is such a
manner that it has made useless of land tenure system. “ There’s no Tiv
farmer that will tell you that ‘we have a family land’ because of the
fragmentation of the land, because of the number of children they have,
they cannot inherit any parcel of land. So they now straddle along
communities in the Benue Valley and neigbouring states’ lands belonging
to other communities and fallow lands that pastoralists use for grazing,
they will cultivate them in a very extensive primitive manner,
occupying large hectares of land. “If they cultivate here this year, the
next year, they move to other places. That is why they have problem in
Nasarawa border communities, they have problem in Taraba border
communities. All those areas are extensively being cultivated, there is
no mechanization any where, and there’s no modern farming. So, with the
pressure on the land resource, if you want to address it, you cannot
just single out the herders and say ‘they must be kept in one place
without making any provisions for them.’” According to him, the
anti-open grazing laws were being targeted at Fulanis and their
livestock. “And these laws, if you look at them, they are targeted at
the pastoralists because one, you have not provided any space for them
and you ask them to go and buy land to create ranches when the context
of the law you created, you have already poisoned the minds of the
people that own the land, that you are creating this law because of the
crisis that is in place. So who will allow anybody to have access to the
land? “So our point is that if the government is serious, they should
make land available to us after all, the Land Use Act vests lands in the
hands of state governors. So they should give us land so that we can
practice our occupation.” He said contrary to beliefs in some quarters
land trespass has been the source of Fulani and farmers crisis in Benue,
it was rather cattle rustling, youth unemployment and what he called
rural banditory, wondering why there was pending cases of land trespass
in any law court in the state. “I challenge the Benue State Government
to tell us how many court cases that have to do with trespass on land
are before the courts in Benue? Or is it that they don’t have faith in
the judiciary that they don’t take cases there? “So, it’s not a question
of trespass on land, that’s just the truth. I want people to understand
that these conflicts we are having year in and year out, the major
drivers are not on trespass on land. Rather, the drivers are cattle
rustling, rural banditory, youth unemployment and desperate politicians
that want to create crisis so they can sustain themselves in power, “he
added."
Read more at:
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/11/nigerian-fulani-wont-accept-ranching-miyetti-allah/
Sunday, 19 November 2017
Tuesday, 17 October 2017
Uniform men lured us to be killed by herdsmen – Plateau attack survivor
"No fewer than 29 persons, mainly women and children, were, yesterday,
killed in an attack by suspected herdsmen in Nkiedonwhro village of
Irigwe chiefdom in Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State. Three
others sustained various degrees of injuries. It will be recalled that
several attacks had been carried out by herdsmen in villages, forcing
Governor Simon Lalong to declare a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the local
government area. However, despite the curfew declared last Friday, night
attacks have persisted in the villages with many residents already
fleeing the troubled area. The President’s position Meanwhile, President
Muhammadu Buhari has directed the military and the Police to put
mechanism in place to ensure that there is no reprisal attacks in
Plateau State. President Buhari, who was reacting to the killing of
about 29 persons by herdsmen, said the madness should not be allowed to
continue. In a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the
President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, the President said he
received, with deep sadness and regret, news of the killings of over 20
persons. According to the statement, “President Buhari believes that
this madness has gone too far. He has instructed the military and the
Police to not only bring the violence to an instant end, but to draw up a
plan to ensure that there are no further attacks and reprisal attacks
by one group against the other. “President Buhari is devoted to the
sanctity of Nigeria’s unity, and he encourages Nigerians of all groups
to learn to live together in peace and harmony. “He commiserates with
the governor and people of Plateau State, and with those who lost their
loved ones, friends and family: may God comfort them as only He can.”
Army, Police keep mum Spokesman of Operation Safe Haven, Captain Adam
Umar, did not answer calls from his mobile phones, while his Police
Command counterpart, Matthias Tyopev, said he was awaiting the report
from the Divisional Police Officer of Bassa Local Government Area before
talking on the issue. However, President of Irigwe Development
Association, Sunday Abdu, who confirmed the incident, claimed that the
victims were taken to a classroom in a public primary school in the
village by members of Operation Safe Haven, saddled with the
responsibility of keeping peace in the area, only to be abandoned.
According to him, “what happened was annihilation; innocent people
killed that way in cold-blood; they just wiped them out. “The security
men ushered the people into a classroom before the attack in the
village. They later ran away and left the victims to be massacred by the
assailants. The mass burial is about taking place. “How can you have
personnel of the Federal Republic of Nigeria run away and leave the
citizens? How and why? That is to tell you that we don’t have security,
it is a simple as that. “Twenty-seven people have been confirmed killed,
but someone told us that two more bodies have been discovered. I have
not confirmed that yet. Series of attacks “Since the gruesome attack on
Ncha village on September 7, there has been series of other attacks.
Like Hukke, in September 9, two persons were killed; Nkyie Dongwro,
October 8, one person killed, another wounded; Kpachudu, October 10, a
young man killed by a Mobile Policeman. “Nzhweruvo and Tafigana, October
11, three dead and houses razed; Rikwe Chongu, October 12, houses
razed; Taegbe, October 14, six dead, five injured and houses razed;
Nkyie Doghwro, October 16, 29 dead, three injured at a school used as
camp and protected by security. “It is painful that these happened
despite useful timely information provided to security personnel
regarding movement and mode of operation of the assailants. “While no
single attacker has been arrested by the security agents, they rather
arrest and detain helpless natives on suspicion of possessing weapons,
despite handset being found on the ground during the attack. “We urge
the government, if it must sustain the curfew, to do the needful and
stop these nightly attacks on our people; our people cannot go to their
farms anymore, even as harvest is near for fear of attacks by herdsmen,
who openly graze on ripe crops.” Rep begs FG to intervene Meanwhile,
member representing Jos North/Bassa Federal constituency, Suleiman
Kwande, called on the Federal Government to investigate the renewed
violence in state, especially in the Irigwe Chiefdom. In a statement
Kwande said: “The native of the locality in the last few weeks have
suffered unprovoked attacks. I call on the Federal Government to set up a
committee to investigate the fresh killing of innocent persons,
including children, women, men and the aged in a primary school, where
they were taking refuge. “Security agencies must wake up to their
constitutional responsibility of protecting lives in the state; this
evil must be stopped — enough of all the killings.”
SURVIVOR SPEAKS:
Meanwhile, a survivor, Samson Amos, who narrowly escaped death during the attack, told Vanguard: “It happened at about 8p.m. This attack is the second in the village. When they attacked us the first time, the military was stationed here to avoid a repeat. “When we got wind of a likely attack yesterday evening (Sunday), we reported to the military and they told us to come and stay in a classroom that has been provided for them as operational base. “We obediently went into the classroom to sleep. But some people were skeptical about this, so they left. “Not long after we entered the classroom, the military left and not long after, the attackers came and we were trapped. They unleashed mayhem. “I counted 27 corpses, two more who were in the hospital died and three others are still in the hospital being treated for various degrees of injuries. A mass grave has been dug to bury the people.” Asked about the identity of the attackers, he said: “You know we have co-habited with the herdsmen for a long time. It is easy to recognise them. We saw them and we know they are the ones killing our people. This is an incident which keeps recurring and there is room for a repeat. “The protest that was held at Jebbu Miango last week was against the seeming lacklustre attitude of the military. The people don’t have faith in the military anymore."
Read more at:
SURVIVOR SPEAKS:
Meanwhile, a survivor, Samson Amos, who narrowly escaped death during the attack, told Vanguard: “It happened at about 8p.m. This attack is the second in the village. When they attacked us the first time, the military was stationed here to avoid a repeat. “When we got wind of a likely attack yesterday evening (Sunday), we reported to the military and they told us to come and stay in a classroom that has been provided for them as operational base. “We obediently went into the classroom to sleep. But some people were skeptical about this, so they left. “Not long after we entered the classroom, the military left and not long after, the attackers came and we were trapped. They unleashed mayhem. “I counted 27 corpses, two more who were in the hospital died and three others are still in the hospital being treated for various degrees of injuries. A mass grave has been dug to bury the people.” Asked about the identity of the attackers, he said: “You know we have co-habited with the herdsmen for a long time. It is easy to recognise them. We saw them and we know they are the ones killing our people. This is an incident which keeps recurring and there is room for a repeat. “The protest that was held at Jebbu Miango last week was against the seeming lacklustre attitude of the military. The people don’t have faith in the military anymore."
Read more at:
No
fewer than 29 persons, mainly women and children, were, yesterday,
killed in an attack by suspected herdsmen in Nkiedonwhro village of
Irigwe chiefdom in Bassa…
vanguardngr.com
Friday, 14 July 2017
We support the Fulani group that is demanding for justice for victims of the crisis on the Mambilla Plateaus, Nigeria, with our own demands
It is
normal and commendable for people who feel they have been offended to
ask for justice. For if everyone in any society were to become law unto
themselves, there would be unspeakable anarchy in such a society.
Since 2011, farmers across the country have been under sustained attacks from Fulani herdsmen and their mercenaries. Mass-killing of anything human, and of even domestic animals in some cases, remains the modus operadi of the attackers. many villages in Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba, Plateau and the southern parts of Kaduna have been completed burnt down with thousands of human lives and properties worth billions of naira destroyed. Kogi and many other states across the country also had "doses" of Fulani herdsmen attacks. In all of this, the Fulanis have never pretended that they were never involved in the killings; officials of their cattle herders' unions have variously accepted responsibility and given reasons why their members attacked this or that community. Yet, none of such officials have been arrested.
For the attacks in Benue state, Alhaji Sale Bayyari, Ardo Boderi and Garus Gololo, all officials of the Fulani cattle unions, have boldly given reasons why their members attacked villagers in Agatu, Buruku and some other communities. These individuals are known!
In Nasarawa state, Alhaji Husseini, the then chairman of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders' Association of Nigeria in the state (maybe he is still there), told newsmen sometimes in 2014 that they were killing Tiv of Nasarawa state "for inviting their kinsmen from Benue to steal our cows". Alhaji Husseini is known!
In Taraba state, near Dooshima village in Ibi local govt, some Fulanis who were accompanied by some soldiers to search for a missing Fulani man, sometimes in 2015, allegedly found the dead body of the man near a Tiv man's farm. After the body was taken away, Fulanis invaded all the nearby farms and murdered 13 Tiv farmers. There was not a single soldier available to save the farmers. The soldiers who accompanied the searchers of the missing man can be traced to produce the Fulani men they had accompanied to recover the dead man's body. They are known!
In Kaduna state, officials of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders' Association of Nigeria held a press conference in Kaduna and gave reasons for the recent killings in the southern part of the state. They claimed that the killings were reprisals for the killing of Hausa/Fulani people in the 2011 post-election violence. That was a clear admission of their knowledge of the reasons for the killings and of those who carried out the attacks. Those officials are known! ... There are many such instances across the country.
Therefore, we support the call for the arrest and prosecution of those who killed Fulanis on the Mambilla Plateaus, as well as the arrest and prosecution of the individuals mentioned in this write-up.
Chronologically, the federal govt is owing victims of these mindless killings "arrears" of justice. We suggest that these arrears be cleared in order of first come first served. There are tomes of documents to guide the exercise.
Signed:
William Ukor, for all the victims of Fulani herdsmen attacks in Nigeria.
Since 2011, farmers across the country have been under sustained attacks from Fulani herdsmen and their mercenaries. Mass-killing of anything human, and of even domestic animals in some cases, remains the modus operadi of the attackers. many villages in Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba, Plateau and the southern parts of Kaduna have been completed burnt down with thousands of human lives and properties worth billions of naira destroyed. Kogi and many other states across the country also had "doses" of Fulani herdsmen attacks. In all of this, the Fulanis have never pretended that they were never involved in the killings; officials of their cattle herders' unions have variously accepted responsibility and given reasons why their members attacked this or that community. Yet, none of such officials have been arrested.
For the attacks in Benue state, Alhaji Sale Bayyari, Ardo Boderi and Garus Gololo, all officials of the Fulani cattle unions, have boldly given reasons why their members attacked villagers in Agatu, Buruku and some other communities. These individuals are known!
In Nasarawa state, Alhaji Husseini, the then chairman of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders' Association of Nigeria in the state (maybe he is still there), told newsmen sometimes in 2014 that they were killing Tiv of Nasarawa state "for inviting their kinsmen from Benue to steal our cows". Alhaji Husseini is known!
In Taraba state, near Dooshima village in Ibi local govt, some Fulanis who were accompanied by some soldiers to search for a missing Fulani man, sometimes in 2015, allegedly found the dead body of the man near a Tiv man's farm. After the body was taken away, Fulanis invaded all the nearby farms and murdered 13 Tiv farmers. There was not a single soldier available to save the farmers. The soldiers who accompanied the searchers of the missing man can be traced to produce the Fulani men they had accompanied to recover the dead man's body. They are known!
In Kaduna state, officials of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders' Association of Nigeria held a press conference in Kaduna and gave reasons for the recent killings in the southern part of the state. They claimed that the killings were reprisals for the killing of Hausa/Fulani people in the 2011 post-election violence. That was a clear admission of their knowledge of the reasons for the killings and of those who carried out the attacks. Those officials are known! ... There are many such instances across the country.
Therefore, we support the call for the arrest and prosecution of those who killed Fulanis on the Mambilla Plateaus, as well as the arrest and prosecution of the individuals mentioned in this write-up.
Chronologically, the federal govt is owing victims of these mindless killings "arrears" of justice. We suggest that these arrears be cleared in order of first come first served. There are tomes of documents to guide the exercise.
Signed:
William Ukor, for all the victims of Fulani herdsmen attacks in Nigeria.
Saturday, 13 May 2017
The continuing massacare of Nigerian farmers by Fulani herdsmen:
"INVESTIGATIONS… ‘THEY WANT OUR LANDS’: Horror, brutal killings as grazing disputes overwhelm Benue;
The people of Benue State seem to have had more than a fair share of tragedies emanating from attacks carried out by marauders suspected to be herdsmen. Hundreds have been killed, and whole communities sacked in attacks that smacks of a deliberate and planned motive to ensure that such areas are devoid of the humans who lay claim to the land.
Guma and Buruku local government areas, as well as Agatu communities have been the worst hit, and the results have been tales of helplessness, sorrow and perceived conspiracies, laced with accusations and denials amid bloodshed.
Tales Of Horror
After losing all he had worked for to what he called Fulani occupation, TY, a displaced farmer in his sixties now lives with other displaced persons inside a camp— built by Benue Non-Governmental Network with support from the UN— tucked somewhere in Daudu, Guma local government area of Benue State. “It was after the third attack on our community that we decided to run for our dear lives,” TY told Ripples Nigeria during a visit to the the camp.
“The first time they came, it was in the afternoon,” the farmer painfully recollected. “We just saw them, suddenly, from nowhere, and they started burning houses that were by the roadside.” TY explained that these attackers, heavily armed and dressed in army-camouflage, didn’t look like the Fulani herdsmen that they know and see around. “They came on motorbikes and looked like soldiers coming to wage war,” he explained. In the subsequent attacks, however, TY claimed that the attackers came with the consent of the herdsmen whose cattle were used as cover to infiltrate. “These other times, what we first saw were herdsmen grazing their cattle as they normally do, and suddenly, there would be a deliberate stampede and from behind them, these attackers would jump out and start shooting sporadically.”
The farmer, who now idly sits under the shade of a mango tree at the camp, said he had since lost the agility to farm, after his farmlands and properties were destroyed.
Displaced persons at the Daudu/Guma camp
Rebecca Uke, a farmer from Kaduoko in neighboring Nassarawa has survived series of attacks before she eventually ran to the camp in Guma. “They will attack, and we would run and then, return. They will attack again, we will run and return”, she recalls. Uke, however, hasn’t returned since her sister-in-law whom she goes to the farm with was shot dead. “She was on her way home from the farm, when the attackers, who took her to be a man because she was wearing trousers, shot her in the head,” Uke, with a teary voice, narrated the event that finally made her run for her life.
“Not many people who were on their way back from the farm survived the shootings that evening. And after killing those they could on the farm, they advanced to our homes and we all started running, trying to get the children to safety first.” When Uke and other villagers thought they had got a refuge somewhere within the village, the attackers came on them again. “While we were waiting, hoping that security operatives would move in and save us, we were shot at again.” Uke lamented the no-rescue response by the security operatives since these killers started attacking them. “This prompted some of our young men to form a vigilante to resist these attacks, but what they had couldn’t match the weaponry of these attackers who came attacking when no one would have expected.” One night, Uke’s neighbor had gone outside to urinate, and they would wake to see her lifeless body. “She was slaughtered like a goat,” Uke said. The vigilante was dislodged by the attackers, and many of these young men were brutally killed.
During the dry season, sometime in 2015, Boa and her family members were on their farmland, cultivating yams, when the attackers came. Just like Uke narrated, the attackers came, using cattle as cover and all they could first see were herdsmen grazing cattle towards their farm. “I was resting under the shade that was a few meters away when one of them jumped out from behind the cattle and started shooting at my family members who were working on the ridges,” Buo recollected. “My brother was shot on the leg, and again shot in the chest. Utonga, his wife who was breastfeeding their suckling, was shot in the back and the bullets penetrated through her stomach that it burst out with her intestines, splashing blood all over the baby’s body. My mother was shot in the head, and my in-law who came visiting and was with us in the farm was also slain with a gunshot in her chest.”
Boa, and two others, ran through the bushes until they got to the main road, and to a nearby town where they saw a group of policemen who would later go to the farm to recover the remains of her family members and the baby who had been soaked in the pool of blood.
Boa’s family members that were killed
“There is no hope of going back, because these attackers have already taken over our place,” cried Boa, who now lives in Guma camp, looking after her late brother’s baby.
Moses Lan, a farmer and NCE (National Certificate of Education) holder, was farming and teaching in the peaceful atmosphere of Umegi, his village, until last December when they were attacked. “These herdsmen came initially to attempt a bargain with us,” Lan explained. “But, we couldn’t allow them graze cattle over our farmlands because, just like they value their cows, we value our crops, too.” The farmers didn’t agree with these herdsmen, and a few days later, they were attacked.
“They started burning houses from Tokura to Tokasi and to Umegi,” Lan said. “They attacked in the day time, and we heard them saying the land belongs to them, that they’ve bought it.” Lan and his family narrowly escaped and ran to Daudu. “I have an aged father who is terribly sick now, because he has not recovered from the shock,” Lan said with a faint voice. His livelihood has been destroyed and he is unable to buy drugs for his dying father. The little food items being distributed in the camp do not always go round, and Lan bitterly complained of his inability to properly feed his family. “What was destroyed on my farms in Umegi can feed my family and ten other families for years,” Lan’s eyes almost let out the tears. “If you go to Umegi now, what are left there are destroyed farmlands and wreckages of burnt houses. Even if we are to return, I don’t have money to restart farming and build another house.”
Displaced persons at Daudu camp speak with Ripples Nigeria
Andrew Aye, another farmer from Bangwuen, became a displaced person, years ago when his village was attacked. “It started in 2010,” Aye claimed. “These herdsmen have been coming but we didn’t allow them graze on our farmlands and we told them to go back,” he continued. In July of that year, one of Aye’s brothers was returning from Makurdi, the state capital when he was attacked and killed. “He was returning in the evening, and those herdsmen pursued him and killed him and ran away,” Aye said. The following year, the herdsmen came back, and again the villagers did not allow them graze on their farmlands. “They will come with their cows and destroy our farmlands, and so we had to tell them to leave,” Aye explained. “They refused and instead, they started shooting and everybody was running up and down. Nobody could stay on his farm.” It was during a second attack, that one of the villagers was killed. “The man was on his farmland when these attackers came, and when he tried to resist them, he was shot.” Angry Aye and others, armed with sticks, went after these attackers who had already fled.
April 24, 2011: The entire village was sleeping when, again, these attackers came. “We didn’t know they had already entered our village in the midnight,” Aye said. “They came out in the morning and started shooting, and we began to run.” That day, eleven people were killed, and houses and properties burnt to ashes. “Tianda, Tiogusa, Akeja, Tiokure, Tiagana, and Ankia were neighboring villages that were razed to the ground.”
Aye misses his village, but he is scared to return. “These people have already occupied the village, and I don’t want to go back there”, he lamented with a misty gaze.
“My brother was killed” – Andrew Ayeh
The story is almost the same with Hannah-Yomotave, a farmer from Tokura. Although, they have been hearing of attacks on other villages, Tokura had remained peaceful. “Being the village of a former Tor Tiv, we never thought these attackers could come,” Hannah said. “We woke one morning, and they came attacking us with weapons.” Hannah had gone to the farm with her son when she began to hear the gunshots. With her son, she, immediately, left the farm and ran back home. Her brother and her mother who were waiting for her so they could flee together had been slaughtered. “I couldn’t even take a change of cloth before my son and I ran for our lives,” she said. Sadly, the son got tired, fell sick, and eventually died.
Displaced children at the Daudu/Guma camp
Even at the camp, the herdsmen graze on farmlands
At the Guma camp, displaced persons— who are yet to recover from the trauma of varying incidents of killings— still live in fear of the unknown. Until the recent intervention of the Benue Non-Governmental Network, hundreds of herdsmen had camped themselves beside these displaced persons. “The herdsmen here haven’t attacked us but, your mind can’t be at rest seeing people who are a part of those who killed your family members still coming around you,” one of the displaced persons said. “Yes, they are grazing, but they’ve not harmed us,” he continued. He, however, noted that the only stream serving them at the camp has been polluted by dung from these cows. “You know when the cows finish eating, the herdsmen take them to the stream so they can have water to drink. And this is the same water we rely on, because the borehole that the state government promised us has remained under construction.”
Nicholas, one of the displaced farmers who is trying to resume farming somewhere around the camp is not happy. “The destruction that these herdsmen have caused is too much,” Nicholas told Ripples Nigeria. “My farm, the one I have yam on, has been leveled by these herdsmen. And when you try to ask them questions, they will say to you, who are you? Are you from this area? And even if you are from this area, you are not the owner of this land; the land belongs to the federal government, and they have rights to any land. And if you are alone on the farm, they will try to beat you up. I have had a very bitter experience.”
As Nicholas spoke with Ripples Nigeria somewhere close to his farm, about two herdsmen were seen grazing the field. “These are their children,” Nicholas said, pointing in their direction. “And where you see them grazing are people’s farmlands,” he said, adding that no one can stop them. “If you go there, they will try to beat you up, or cut you with their cutlass.”
The only option left for Nicholas is to beg the herdsmen so they can spare his farm. “And even when you plead with them and they had assured you of not coming the next day, it is that next day you will see them again. Go to my farm, and see what they did yesterday and you will shed tears. And while I was trying to plead with them, they said if I shout they are going to uproot my yam and eat, since they are also looking for food.”
Nicholas wants the authorities to do something, because if anyone of them attempts to do anything, the consequences may be colossal. When farmers run to security operatives to report the uncouthness of these herdsmen, the herdsmen would have fled before the security operatives arrive at the scene. “The security people will now be asking us, where are they? And when we can’t find them, they will call us liars and won’t respond the next time we go to them”
Even at the camp, the herdsmen still graze over our farmlands
But, We Pay For Damages
Disguising as potential buyers, Ripples Nigeria’s team approached one of the herdsmen grazing on farmlands not too far from the Guma camp. With a friendly mien, the young herder told the team that his father, who he said was at home, has the final say over the purchase of any of the cows.
When eventually asked if people complain about the way they go about grazing on farmlands, the herder said, “if we touch any body’s farm, we will pay for the damages.” Even when his cows were seen on the farmlands, he argued that they are being careful not to graze on people’s farmlands so as to avoid paying compensations.
We pay farmers whose farms we touch
More Tales From The Other Side Of The River
Buruku is one of the local government areas in Benue State that has been severely attacked by these marauders. Driving many kilometers of the potholed road from Makurdi— the state’s capital— through Gboko, the dusty path that leads into communities in Buruku is as silent as the graveyard. “Many people have been displaced here,” pitifully shaking his head, John, a driver taking Ripples Nigeria’s team to Buruku said.
The team’s first stop was at a rickety public primary school building where a couple of displaced persons from the other side of River Katsina-Ala are camped. With their sorrow-laden faces, the hapless victims, mostly children and women, sat under the gentle breeze of the mango tree by the primary school.
Displaced persons from Buruku
“These people came to our house last year April,” Valva Igbarumo, a displaced farmer at the camp here began the sad story. “Ogune Igila, my uncle, was killed. I lost Apeh, my brother. My father wasn’t spared, too.” The herdsmen came grazing like they have always done, and suddenly they started shooting at these villagers. Surviving the attack, the villagers packed their things and moved to a safer place. After a while, they returned to their place, with the thought that it was safe for them. As if the attackers were somewhere hiding and waiting for their return, these villagers were attacked again, this time, with more brutality that Igbamuro lost three of his family members.
“These herders do invite some of their brothers who know how to shoot to come and kill us,” a traumatized Igbamuro claimed. He had since moved his immediate family to the camp. Describing what the attackers looked like, Igbamuro said they wore uniform that appeared like that of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps. “They have this long curly hair, and they are big like giants.” Igbamuro explained that the attackers are not the regular Fulani herdsmen whom some of them usually interact with. “We can tell the regular Fulani herder to move his cattle away from our farm and he will listen, but when these other people are around, the herdsmen find the courage to remain on our farmlands”.
Igbamuro is more worried about his inability to return to his farm. “This year, God has given us rain, and I wanted to return to my farm, but the herdsmen are still occupying everywhere, grazing on the farmlands.”
I want to return, but the herdsmen have occupied our village
As there is no access bridge, Ripples Nigeria’s team used the local ferry to get across River Katsina-Ala to the other side of Buruku where most of the villagers at the camp ran from.
On the other side of the River, the tales of woes, and killings are no different, even the Miyette Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) confirms the killings, but made some astounding revelations on the identities of the killers
They Opened Our Doors With Force, Bringing In Cows To Eat Our Seedlings
Before these attacks drove everyone out, Uatsor used to be a peaceful village and a farming hub. Meraba, a displaced farmer and civil servant who took Ripples Nigeria round select portions of affected farmlands in the now deserted Uatsor village explained that the farmers have suffered two major attacks which led to the burning of houses, loss of lives and destruction of farmlands. “About this time last year when they attacked us, we reached out to the government, and they provided us with security. Early this year, however, these people started coming again with their cattle, grazing on our farmlands. And this time, we saw them with guns and other sophisticated weapons.”
The villagers, immediately, called on the government again, but unfortunately, the government couldn’t give them adequate security this time. “One day, they just decided to kill, and that was how they started shooting and butchering our people,”Meraba said. He added that the ashes of the burnt Roman Catholic Mission, the only church in Uatsor are still hot.
The burnt Roman Catholic Mission in Uatsor
They had to flee, and after a long while, they returned, not to live there, but to bury their dead. “We buried some of our people, three weeks ago; eleven were buried within my area and then twelve in the other area.”
In the cultivation circle, farmers have in their reserves, seedlings that will be used during the next planting season. If farmers had lost everything on their farms to grazing, they could easily use these seedlings to restart. The fate of the farmers here, however, is a sad one. “When they came attacking, and we ran away, they opened our doors with force and brought in their cows to eat our seedlings,”Meraba said. “Especially, the yam seedlings,” he added.
They brought in their cows to eat our yam seedlings
Gbaji’s house that was destroyed
Gbaji, a popular and rich farmer in Uatsor, was one of the casualties of last year’s attacks. When everybody was running for their lives, Gbaji stayed to resist the attack on his house and yam barns. His house was looted, and burnt.
“He was butchered,” Meraba said.
Gbaji’s grave
Seeking help from the government, Meraba said adequate security is needed so that they can return to farming. “We need more security so that our people can come back home and farm. As we are not farming now, there is no way we can properly feed our family.”
Deserted Uatsor
“The killer-herdsmen are around here, see what they just did to my house!”
For the fear of being attacked over the night, farmers who come from the camps to check on their houses and farms that are yet to be destroyed in Uatsor cannot pass the night in the village. They return to their camps as soon as they are done.
Ahume, one of such farmers— who was returning from his farm— spotted Ripples Nigeria’s team, and drew the attention of the team to his house— to the fresh cuts on his windows. “I check on this house whenever I come to my farm here,” a devastated Ahume said.
With an undertone that quickly suggested to Ripples Nigeria’s team to leave the area with immediate effect, Ahume said, “these killer-herdsmen are around here, see what they did to my house, just a few minutes ago!”
See what they just did to my house
A look at the loss
A conspiracy?
A couple of members of the Movement Against Fulani Occupation, MAFO , believe that there is a plot by some prominent Fulanis to kill their people and turn their communities into ranches. Nyor, a member of the group— whose mission is to assert the right to live and productive activities of Benue communities in the face of outright invasion, killing and occupation of lands— told Ripples Nigeria that these attacks are all coordinated.
“For them, it is a carefully thought-out plan,” he said. “And, it is across the West African sub-region.” He further explained that about eighty percent of the cows are owned by prominent persons who use the herders— who trek thousands of kilometers— for grazing purposes. “It is true, the natural Fulani man owns cows, but majority of these cows are owned by people who have the capacity to ranch them. And these are the billionaires. They have their own arrangement, just like an Igbo man will open a shop and apprentice a boy from his village, the Fulanis share cows amongst themselves on similar arrangements.”
These cattle owners who are supposed to build ranches, prefer grazing fields because they see the free expanse of land, Nyor explained. Despite having the money, Nyor said these cattle owners don’t want to bear the costs of medications and feeding the cows if kept in a ranch. “It is so difficult for them to agree to ranching, and they come to graze on the most fertile part of the land that is meant for farming, and some of them even proposed that lands across the country should be allotted them,” he said. “Have the Ijaws or the Jukuns requested that every river in Nigeria be conceded to them so they can fish?
“This is how the problem started. They had grazing routes that were mapped out in the laws of the 50s, but that was when Nigeria’s population was around 50 million. Then, our lands spanned many kilometers, but today, it’s not so, because of the increasing population.”
Ismail Iro, in his paper noted that “formal grazing reserves in Nigeria started accidentally in the 1950s when Hamisu Kano, working with pastoralists on livestock vaccination, foresaw the shortages of grazing land in Northern Nigeria. Supported by the government, he initiated the grazing reserve scheme from the abandoned government resettlement schemes (Fulani Settlement Scheme).
The resettlement schemes collapsed because the government had neither the financial nor the managerial ability to continue with the financially burdensome scheme, and the best alternative use of the land, the government thought, was to convert it into grazing reserves that would require less financially commitment. Grazing reserve hatched in 1954 after a study of the Fulani production system contained in the “Fulani Amenities Proposal”. The proposal suggested the creation of grazing reserves, the improvement of Fulani welfare, and the transformation of the herd management system. By 1964, the government had gazette about 6.4 million hectares of the forest reserve, ninety-eight percent in the savanna. Sokoto Province had twenty-one percent of the land, followed by Kabba, Bauchi, Zaria, Ilorin, and Katsina, with 11-15 percent each The Wase, Zamfara, and Udubo reserves followed in succession.”
Nyor alleged that these attacks are been sponsored by billionaire cattle owners who now keep a militant wing of the herdsmen. “They want to depopulate, and beyond bringing their cows to graze, they want to occupy,” he said. “This is neither a war nor crisis, it is simply occupation. And for occupation to happen, a tribe must be wiped out.”
A result of research on Fulani herdsmen by the Chinua Achebe Center for Leadership and Development revealed that most of the Fulani killer herdsmen do not own cow, but are employed by cattle owners as “security men” whose job is strictly to protect the cattle. “They do not however follow the cattle around, but move in separate vehicles along a defined route within the states where cattle are being reared,” the report read.
When there is a disagreement between host communities or between herdsmen and farmers, the report further stated, that, “the Fulani herdsmen, accompanying the cattle, will locate the nearest Fulani settlement and if there is none, they will locate the nearest Garki or Ama-Hausa. When they arrive, they will narrate their story.
“The Fulani (Nigerian middlemen) cattle managers will notify their top Fulani herdsmen, which in this case, includes governors (like El-Rufai) and other top Fulani Bourgeois, who own the cattle. A decision will be made about whether there should be an attack or not on the said village or host community. If an attack is sanctioned, then modalities will be mapped out and a date will be chosen for the attack.”
It added that, most times, these attacks happen because “respectable men” sanction them.
The Fulani Counter-Narrative
Garus Gololo, the national coordinator of Miyette Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) admitted that the attacks in Buruku were carried out by Fulani herdsmen. He, however, alleged that attacks on other communities were perpetrated by Terwase Akwaza, a suspected criminal popularly known as Ghana, who has been declared wanted by the government.
“I am sure they killed some of the farmers in Buruku,” he said, adding that earlier, the herdsmen’s cattle had been attacked. “The killings were done by the herdsmen, and we went there and even met with the herdsmen. We asked them why they killed farmers and they said that it were the farmers who first attacked them and their cows.
“It is only the federal government that can sort this out because most of the grazing routes have been blocked out and cultivated by the farmers,” Gololo explained. “And so, the Fulani herdsman has nowhere to go with his cattle. If they follow a route today, by tomorrow before they come back, a farmer would have blocked that route.
“There used to be grazing routes from Maiduguri down to Port-Harcourt, from Mali down to Rivers State.”
He noted that a meeting was recently held with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and they deliberated on how they can carve out the grazing routes for the herders. He also explained that there has been series of dialogue-meetings to finding solutions to the dispute. Samuel Ortom, Benue State governor, had inaugurated committees across the local government areas of the state to sort issues between farmers and the herders.
“Those who come to attack with guns are Ghana boys,” he said. “Even one Fulani boy was attacked on his way to Katsina-Ala, and his hand was chopped off. “The criminal recruited youths and they have been killing the Fulanis and even the farmers.
“The Buruku attacks, we confirmed that the herdsmen were responsible, and when we went there the governor told them to leave the area and they left. But the attacks on Ukum, Jatoka, Katsina-Ala, Ghana is to be held responsible for that”, he said.
The Chile island of River Katsina-Ala where the herdsmen were before Governor Ortom begged them to leave
Shoot Arms-Bearing Herdsmen On Sight –Gololo
In this interview with Ripples Nigeria, Gololo said his association has given directive to the security operatives to shoot any herdsmen seen with guns.
Shoot arms-bearing herdsmen on sight
Gololo who believes in dialogue and recently received an award for peace-keeping, does not understand the reasons for the attacks. “The Fulani lives by his cow, and the farmer lives on his farm,” he said. “So, all those ones, we’ve directed the DPO to arrest them. And we have even given them the directive that if you see a Fulani herdsman with a gun, don’t arrest him, shoot him because he is a criminal. Clear him off so that people will have rest of mind.
“It is not right to be in position of firearms. Our rule is that you shouldn’t go grazing with arms. You go with your stick and machete. The stick is used to control the cattle, and that machete is used to slaughter a cow that is about to die.”
We May Carry Out Resistance Attacks
An angry youth leader from one of the Tiv communities that have been affected told Ripples Nigeria that they may be forced to carry out resistance attacks should the killings of their people go on in this manner. “When you destroy a farm and the seedlings reserved, it means the farmer would be unable to farm the next season and this means that for one or two years, you have completely taken off the farmer’s livelihood. And yes, the premium the Fulani herdsman place on his cows is the premium a Tiv farmer places on his crops. If you value your cows, we also value our crops.
“Years ago when we were attacked in a manner like this, we went to attack their settlements, too and we killed their warlord. And do you know that for the next six months, there was no attack on our lands? When they saw that there was an organized resistance, they backed off. Before then, you can imagine, the private residence of our Tor Tiv was invaded and was occupied by the Fulani herdsmen.
“We may start going to the Fulani settlements to attack them, if these killings continue. Right now, we are barking, the Fulani herdsmen shouldn’t get us to biting.”
Weeping openly after an attack on Tarfi village, Binnev Ward in Buruku local government of Benue State, Governor Samuel Ortom also noted that they soon might resort to self-help if security agencies could not protect them.
Ticking Time Bomb
Nigeria is yet to fully recover from the catastrophic terror of the Boko Haram Islamic sect that has killed thousands and rendered millions homeless, especially, in the northeastern part of the country. The dreaded terrorists whose series of attacks date back to 2009 have been fighting to achieve their stated agenda of establishing caliphates across select northern states. Known to be vehemently against western education, Boko Haram terrorists have destroyed schools, churches, mosques, and government buildings.
The country may have to get itself prepared to fight another killer group rearing its destructive head through the agrarian settlements of Benue, the North-Central Nigerian state nicknamed, ‘the food basket of the nation’, even as the marauders have reached as far as Enugu State in the South East part of the country. The herdsmen menace may just be a time bomb which will explode, soon as affected communities decide to no longer turn the other cheek, but fight back in the name of self defence.
A timeline of attacks on these communities from 2013— when it reportedly started— till date shows that more than fifty communities have been attacked, and many of these communities totally razed down.
Governor of the state, Samuel Otom when he played host to the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) led by its President, Rev. Dr. Samson Ayokunle, recently at Government House, Markudi, cried out that 12 out of 23 local council areas in the state had remained under the siege of herdsmen for two years now.
Among the areas he listed include, Gwer-west, Kwande, Tarka , Buruku, Guma, Logo, Agatu, Gwer-East and Ukum. He also lamented that the inhuman activities of the brutish herdsmen had forced the locals out of their farmlands leading to food shortage, hunger, poverty and untold hardship on the people."
https://www.ripplesnigeria.com/investigations-they-want-our-lands-horror-brutal-killings-as-grazing-disputes-overwhelm-benue/
The people of Benue State seem to have had more than a fair share of tragedies emanating from attacks carried out by marauders suspected to be herdsmen. Hundreds have been killed, and whole communities sacked in attacks that smacks of a deliberate and planned motive to ensure that such areas are devoid of the humans who lay claim to the land.
Guma and Buruku local government areas, as well as Agatu communities have been the worst hit, and the results have been tales of helplessness, sorrow and perceived conspiracies, laced with accusations and denials amid bloodshed.
Tales Of Horror
After losing all he had worked for to what he called Fulani occupation, TY, a displaced farmer in his sixties now lives with other displaced persons inside a camp— built by Benue Non-Governmental Network with support from the UN— tucked somewhere in Daudu, Guma local government area of Benue State. “It was after the third attack on our community that we decided to run for our dear lives,” TY told Ripples Nigeria during a visit to the the camp.
“The first time they came, it was in the afternoon,” the farmer painfully recollected. “We just saw them, suddenly, from nowhere, and they started burning houses that were by the roadside.” TY explained that these attackers, heavily armed and dressed in army-camouflage, didn’t look like the Fulani herdsmen that they know and see around. “They came on motorbikes and looked like soldiers coming to wage war,” he explained. In the subsequent attacks, however, TY claimed that the attackers came with the consent of the herdsmen whose cattle were used as cover to infiltrate. “These other times, what we first saw were herdsmen grazing their cattle as they normally do, and suddenly, there would be a deliberate stampede and from behind them, these attackers would jump out and start shooting sporadically.”
The farmer, who now idly sits under the shade of a mango tree at the camp, said he had since lost the agility to farm, after his farmlands and properties were destroyed.
Displaced persons at the Daudu/Guma camp
Rebecca Uke, a farmer from Kaduoko in neighboring Nassarawa has survived series of attacks before she eventually ran to the camp in Guma. “They will attack, and we would run and then, return. They will attack again, we will run and return”, she recalls. Uke, however, hasn’t returned since her sister-in-law whom she goes to the farm with was shot dead. “She was on her way home from the farm, when the attackers, who took her to be a man because she was wearing trousers, shot her in the head,” Uke, with a teary voice, narrated the event that finally made her run for her life.
“Not many people who were on their way back from the farm survived the shootings that evening. And after killing those they could on the farm, they advanced to our homes and we all started running, trying to get the children to safety first.” When Uke and other villagers thought they had got a refuge somewhere within the village, the attackers came on them again. “While we were waiting, hoping that security operatives would move in and save us, we were shot at again.” Uke lamented the no-rescue response by the security operatives since these killers started attacking them. “This prompted some of our young men to form a vigilante to resist these attacks, but what they had couldn’t match the weaponry of these attackers who came attacking when no one would have expected.” One night, Uke’s neighbor had gone outside to urinate, and they would wake to see her lifeless body. “She was slaughtered like a goat,” Uke said. The vigilante was dislodged by the attackers, and many of these young men were brutally killed.
During the dry season, sometime in 2015, Boa and her family members were on their farmland, cultivating yams, when the attackers came. Just like Uke narrated, the attackers came, using cattle as cover and all they could first see were herdsmen grazing cattle towards their farm. “I was resting under the shade that was a few meters away when one of them jumped out from behind the cattle and started shooting at my family members who were working on the ridges,” Buo recollected. “My brother was shot on the leg, and again shot in the chest. Utonga, his wife who was breastfeeding their suckling, was shot in the back and the bullets penetrated through her stomach that it burst out with her intestines, splashing blood all over the baby’s body. My mother was shot in the head, and my in-law who came visiting and was with us in the farm was also slain with a gunshot in her chest.”
Boa, and two others, ran through the bushes until they got to the main road, and to a nearby town where they saw a group of policemen who would later go to the farm to recover the remains of her family members and the baby who had been soaked in the pool of blood.
Boa’s family members that were killed
“There is no hope of going back, because these attackers have already taken over our place,” cried Boa, who now lives in Guma camp, looking after her late brother’s baby.
Moses Lan, a farmer and NCE (National Certificate of Education) holder, was farming and teaching in the peaceful atmosphere of Umegi, his village, until last December when they were attacked. “These herdsmen came initially to attempt a bargain with us,” Lan explained. “But, we couldn’t allow them graze cattle over our farmlands because, just like they value their cows, we value our crops, too.” The farmers didn’t agree with these herdsmen, and a few days later, they were attacked.
“They started burning houses from Tokura to Tokasi and to Umegi,” Lan said. “They attacked in the day time, and we heard them saying the land belongs to them, that they’ve bought it.” Lan and his family narrowly escaped and ran to Daudu. “I have an aged father who is terribly sick now, because he has not recovered from the shock,” Lan said with a faint voice. His livelihood has been destroyed and he is unable to buy drugs for his dying father. The little food items being distributed in the camp do not always go round, and Lan bitterly complained of his inability to properly feed his family. “What was destroyed on my farms in Umegi can feed my family and ten other families for years,” Lan’s eyes almost let out the tears. “If you go to Umegi now, what are left there are destroyed farmlands and wreckages of burnt houses. Even if we are to return, I don’t have money to restart farming and build another house.”
Displaced persons at Daudu camp speak with Ripples Nigeria
Andrew Aye, another farmer from Bangwuen, became a displaced person, years ago when his village was attacked. “It started in 2010,” Aye claimed. “These herdsmen have been coming but we didn’t allow them graze on our farmlands and we told them to go back,” he continued. In July of that year, one of Aye’s brothers was returning from Makurdi, the state capital when he was attacked and killed. “He was returning in the evening, and those herdsmen pursued him and killed him and ran away,” Aye said. The following year, the herdsmen came back, and again the villagers did not allow them graze on their farmlands. “They will come with their cows and destroy our farmlands, and so we had to tell them to leave,” Aye explained. “They refused and instead, they started shooting and everybody was running up and down. Nobody could stay on his farm.” It was during a second attack, that one of the villagers was killed. “The man was on his farmland when these attackers came, and when he tried to resist them, he was shot.” Angry Aye and others, armed with sticks, went after these attackers who had already fled.
April 24, 2011: The entire village was sleeping when, again, these attackers came. “We didn’t know they had already entered our village in the midnight,” Aye said. “They came out in the morning and started shooting, and we began to run.” That day, eleven people were killed, and houses and properties burnt to ashes. “Tianda, Tiogusa, Akeja, Tiokure, Tiagana, and Ankia were neighboring villages that were razed to the ground.”
Aye misses his village, but he is scared to return. “These people have already occupied the village, and I don’t want to go back there”, he lamented with a misty gaze.
“My brother was killed” – Andrew Ayeh
The story is almost the same with Hannah-Yomotave, a farmer from Tokura. Although, they have been hearing of attacks on other villages, Tokura had remained peaceful. “Being the village of a former Tor Tiv, we never thought these attackers could come,” Hannah said. “We woke one morning, and they came attacking us with weapons.” Hannah had gone to the farm with her son when she began to hear the gunshots. With her son, she, immediately, left the farm and ran back home. Her brother and her mother who were waiting for her so they could flee together had been slaughtered. “I couldn’t even take a change of cloth before my son and I ran for our lives,” she said. Sadly, the son got tired, fell sick, and eventually died.
Displaced children at the Daudu/Guma camp
Even at the camp, the herdsmen graze on farmlands
At the Guma camp, displaced persons— who are yet to recover from the trauma of varying incidents of killings— still live in fear of the unknown. Until the recent intervention of the Benue Non-Governmental Network, hundreds of herdsmen had camped themselves beside these displaced persons. “The herdsmen here haven’t attacked us but, your mind can’t be at rest seeing people who are a part of those who killed your family members still coming around you,” one of the displaced persons said. “Yes, they are grazing, but they’ve not harmed us,” he continued. He, however, noted that the only stream serving them at the camp has been polluted by dung from these cows. “You know when the cows finish eating, the herdsmen take them to the stream so they can have water to drink. And this is the same water we rely on, because the borehole that the state government promised us has remained under construction.”
Nicholas, one of the displaced farmers who is trying to resume farming somewhere around the camp is not happy. “The destruction that these herdsmen have caused is too much,” Nicholas told Ripples Nigeria. “My farm, the one I have yam on, has been leveled by these herdsmen. And when you try to ask them questions, they will say to you, who are you? Are you from this area? And even if you are from this area, you are not the owner of this land; the land belongs to the federal government, and they have rights to any land. And if you are alone on the farm, they will try to beat you up. I have had a very bitter experience.”
As Nicholas spoke with Ripples Nigeria somewhere close to his farm, about two herdsmen were seen grazing the field. “These are their children,” Nicholas said, pointing in their direction. “And where you see them grazing are people’s farmlands,” he said, adding that no one can stop them. “If you go there, they will try to beat you up, or cut you with their cutlass.”
The only option left for Nicholas is to beg the herdsmen so they can spare his farm. “And even when you plead with them and they had assured you of not coming the next day, it is that next day you will see them again. Go to my farm, and see what they did yesterday and you will shed tears. And while I was trying to plead with them, they said if I shout they are going to uproot my yam and eat, since they are also looking for food.”
Nicholas wants the authorities to do something, because if anyone of them attempts to do anything, the consequences may be colossal. When farmers run to security operatives to report the uncouthness of these herdsmen, the herdsmen would have fled before the security operatives arrive at the scene. “The security people will now be asking us, where are they? And when we can’t find them, they will call us liars and won’t respond the next time we go to them”
Even at the camp, the herdsmen still graze over our farmlands
But, We Pay For Damages
Disguising as potential buyers, Ripples Nigeria’s team approached one of the herdsmen grazing on farmlands not too far from the Guma camp. With a friendly mien, the young herder told the team that his father, who he said was at home, has the final say over the purchase of any of the cows.
When eventually asked if people complain about the way they go about grazing on farmlands, the herder said, “if we touch any body’s farm, we will pay for the damages.” Even when his cows were seen on the farmlands, he argued that they are being careful not to graze on people’s farmlands so as to avoid paying compensations.
We pay farmers whose farms we touch
More Tales From The Other Side Of The River
Buruku is one of the local government areas in Benue State that has been severely attacked by these marauders. Driving many kilometers of the potholed road from Makurdi— the state’s capital— through Gboko, the dusty path that leads into communities in Buruku is as silent as the graveyard. “Many people have been displaced here,” pitifully shaking his head, John, a driver taking Ripples Nigeria’s team to Buruku said.
The team’s first stop was at a rickety public primary school building where a couple of displaced persons from the other side of River Katsina-Ala are camped. With their sorrow-laden faces, the hapless victims, mostly children and women, sat under the gentle breeze of the mango tree by the primary school.
Displaced persons from Buruku
“These people came to our house last year April,” Valva Igbarumo, a displaced farmer at the camp here began the sad story. “Ogune Igila, my uncle, was killed. I lost Apeh, my brother. My father wasn’t spared, too.” The herdsmen came grazing like they have always done, and suddenly they started shooting at these villagers. Surviving the attack, the villagers packed their things and moved to a safer place. After a while, they returned to their place, with the thought that it was safe for them. As if the attackers were somewhere hiding and waiting for their return, these villagers were attacked again, this time, with more brutality that Igbamuro lost three of his family members.
“These herders do invite some of their brothers who know how to shoot to come and kill us,” a traumatized Igbamuro claimed. He had since moved his immediate family to the camp. Describing what the attackers looked like, Igbamuro said they wore uniform that appeared like that of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps. “They have this long curly hair, and they are big like giants.” Igbamuro explained that the attackers are not the regular Fulani herdsmen whom some of them usually interact with. “We can tell the regular Fulani herder to move his cattle away from our farm and he will listen, but when these other people are around, the herdsmen find the courage to remain on our farmlands”.
Igbamuro is more worried about his inability to return to his farm. “This year, God has given us rain, and I wanted to return to my farm, but the herdsmen are still occupying everywhere, grazing on the farmlands.”
I want to return, but the herdsmen have occupied our village
As there is no access bridge, Ripples Nigeria’s team used the local ferry to get across River Katsina-Ala to the other side of Buruku where most of the villagers at the camp ran from.
On the other side of the River, the tales of woes, and killings are no different, even the Miyette Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) confirms the killings, but made some astounding revelations on the identities of the killers
They Opened Our Doors With Force, Bringing In Cows To Eat Our Seedlings
Before these attacks drove everyone out, Uatsor used to be a peaceful village and a farming hub. Meraba, a displaced farmer and civil servant who took Ripples Nigeria round select portions of affected farmlands in the now deserted Uatsor village explained that the farmers have suffered two major attacks which led to the burning of houses, loss of lives and destruction of farmlands. “About this time last year when they attacked us, we reached out to the government, and they provided us with security. Early this year, however, these people started coming again with their cattle, grazing on our farmlands. And this time, we saw them with guns and other sophisticated weapons.”
The villagers, immediately, called on the government again, but unfortunately, the government couldn’t give them adequate security this time. “One day, they just decided to kill, and that was how they started shooting and butchering our people,”Meraba said. He added that the ashes of the burnt Roman Catholic Mission, the only church in Uatsor are still hot.
The burnt Roman Catholic Mission in Uatsor
They had to flee, and after a long while, they returned, not to live there, but to bury their dead. “We buried some of our people, three weeks ago; eleven were buried within my area and then twelve in the other area.”
In the cultivation circle, farmers have in their reserves, seedlings that will be used during the next planting season. If farmers had lost everything on their farms to grazing, they could easily use these seedlings to restart. The fate of the farmers here, however, is a sad one. “When they came attacking, and we ran away, they opened our doors with force and brought in their cows to eat our seedlings,”Meraba said. “Especially, the yam seedlings,” he added.
They brought in their cows to eat our yam seedlings
Gbaji’s house that was destroyed
Gbaji, a popular and rich farmer in Uatsor, was one of the casualties of last year’s attacks. When everybody was running for their lives, Gbaji stayed to resist the attack on his house and yam barns. His house was looted, and burnt.
“He was butchered,” Meraba said.
Gbaji’s grave
Seeking help from the government, Meraba said adequate security is needed so that they can return to farming. “We need more security so that our people can come back home and farm. As we are not farming now, there is no way we can properly feed our family.”
Deserted Uatsor
“The killer-herdsmen are around here, see what they just did to my house!”
For the fear of being attacked over the night, farmers who come from the camps to check on their houses and farms that are yet to be destroyed in Uatsor cannot pass the night in the village. They return to their camps as soon as they are done.
Ahume, one of such farmers— who was returning from his farm— spotted Ripples Nigeria’s team, and drew the attention of the team to his house— to the fresh cuts on his windows. “I check on this house whenever I come to my farm here,” a devastated Ahume said.
With an undertone that quickly suggested to Ripples Nigeria’s team to leave the area with immediate effect, Ahume said, “these killer-herdsmen are around here, see what they did to my house, just a few minutes ago!”
See what they just did to my house
A look at the loss
A conspiracy?
A couple of members of the Movement Against Fulani Occupation, MAFO , believe that there is a plot by some prominent Fulanis to kill their people and turn their communities into ranches. Nyor, a member of the group— whose mission is to assert the right to live and productive activities of Benue communities in the face of outright invasion, killing and occupation of lands— told Ripples Nigeria that these attacks are all coordinated.
“For them, it is a carefully thought-out plan,” he said. “And, it is across the West African sub-region.” He further explained that about eighty percent of the cows are owned by prominent persons who use the herders— who trek thousands of kilometers— for grazing purposes. “It is true, the natural Fulani man owns cows, but majority of these cows are owned by people who have the capacity to ranch them. And these are the billionaires. They have their own arrangement, just like an Igbo man will open a shop and apprentice a boy from his village, the Fulanis share cows amongst themselves on similar arrangements.”
These cattle owners who are supposed to build ranches, prefer grazing fields because they see the free expanse of land, Nyor explained. Despite having the money, Nyor said these cattle owners don’t want to bear the costs of medications and feeding the cows if kept in a ranch. “It is so difficult for them to agree to ranching, and they come to graze on the most fertile part of the land that is meant for farming, and some of them even proposed that lands across the country should be allotted them,” he said. “Have the Ijaws or the Jukuns requested that every river in Nigeria be conceded to them so they can fish?
“This is how the problem started. They had grazing routes that were mapped out in the laws of the 50s, but that was when Nigeria’s population was around 50 million. Then, our lands spanned many kilometers, but today, it’s not so, because of the increasing population.”
Ismail Iro, in his paper noted that “formal grazing reserves in Nigeria started accidentally in the 1950s when Hamisu Kano, working with pastoralists on livestock vaccination, foresaw the shortages of grazing land in Northern Nigeria. Supported by the government, he initiated the grazing reserve scheme from the abandoned government resettlement schemes (Fulani Settlement Scheme).
The resettlement schemes collapsed because the government had neither the financial nor the managerial ability to continue with the financially burdensome scheme, and the best alternative use of the land, the government thought, was to convert it into grazing reserves that would require less financially commitment. Grazing reserve hatched in 1954 after a study of the Fulani production system contained in the “Fulani Amenities Proposal”. The proposal suggested the creation of grazing reserves, the improvement of Fulani welfare, and the transformation of the herd management system. By 1964, the government had gazette about 6.4 million hectares of the forest reserve, ninety-eight percent in the savanna. Sokoto Province had twenty-one percent of the land, followed by Kabba, Bauchi, Zaria, Ilorin, and Katsina, with 11-15 percent each The Wase, Zamfara, and Udubo reserves followed in succession.”
Nyor alleged that these attacks are been sponsored by billionaire cattle owners who now keep a militant wing of the herdsmen. “They want to depopulate, and beyond bringing their cows to graze, they want to occupy,” he said. “This is neither a war nor crisis, it is simply occupation. And for occupation to happen, a tribe must be wiped out.”
A result of research on Fulani herdsmen by the Chinua Achebe Center for Leadership and Development revealed that most of the Fulani killer herdsmen do not own cow, but are employed by cattle owners as “security men” whose job is strictly to protect the cattle. “They do not however follow the cattle around, but move in separate vehicles along a defined route within the states where cattle are being reared,” the report read.
When there is a disagreement between host communities or between herdsmen and farmers, the report further stated, that, “the Fulani herdsmen, accompanying the cattle, will locate the nearest Fulani settlement and if there is none, they will locate the nearest Garki or Ama-Hausa. When they arrive, they will narrate their story.
“The Fulani (Nigerian middlemen) cattle managers will notify their top Fulani herdsmen, which in this case, includes governors (like El-Rufai) and other top Fulani Bourgeois, who own the cattle. A decision will be made about whether there should be an attack or not on the said village or host community. If an attack is sanctioned, then modalities will be mapped out and a date will be chosen for the attack.”
It added that, most times, these attacks happen because “respectable men” sanction them.
The Fulani Counter-Narrative
Garus Gololo, the national coordinator of Miyette Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) admitted that the attacks in Buruku were carried out by Fulani herdsmen. He, however, alleged that attacks on other communities were perpetrated by Terwase Akwaza, a suspected criminal popularly known as Ghana, who has been declared wanted by the government.
“I am sure they killed some of the farmers in Buruku,” he said, adding that earlier, the herdsmen’s cattle had been attacked. “The killings were done by the herdsmen, and we went there and even met with the herdsmen. We asked them why they killed farmers and they said that it were the farmers who first attacked them and their cows.
“It is only the federal government that can sort this out because most of the grazing routes have been blocked out and cultivated by the farmers,” Gololo explained. “And so, the Fulani herdsman has nowhere to go with his cattle. If they follow a route today, by tomorrow before they come back, a farmer would have blocked that route.
“There used to be grazing routes from Maiduguri down to Port-Harcourt, from Mali down to Rivers State.”
He noted that a meeting was recently held with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and they deliberated on how they can carve out the grazing routes for the herders. He also explained that there has been series of dialogue-meetings to finding solutions to the dispute. Samuel Ortom, Benue State governor, had inaugurated committees across the local government areas of the state to sort issues between farmers and the herders.
“Those who come to attack with guns are Ghana boys,” he said. “Even one Fulani boy was attacked on his way to Katsina-Ala, and his hand was chopped off. “The criminal recruited youths and they have been killing the Fulanis and even the farmers.
“The Buruku attacks, we confirmed that the herdsmen were responsible, and when we went there the governor told them to leave the area and they left. But the attacks on Ukum, Jatoka, Katsina-Ala, Ghana is to be held responsible for that”, he said.
The Chile island of River Katsina-Ala where the herdsmen were before Governor Ortom begged them to leave
Shoot Arms-Bearing Herdsmen On Sight –Gololo
In this interview with Ripples Nigeria, Gololo said his association has given directive to the security operatives to shoot any herdsmen seen with guns.
Shoot arms-bearing herdsmen on sight
Gololo who believes in dialogue and recently received an award for peace-keeping, does not understand the reasons for the attacks. “The Fulani lives by his cow, and the farmer lives on his farm,” he said. “So, all those ones, we’ve directed the DPO to arrest them. And we have even given them the directive that if you see a Fulani herdsman with a gun, don’t arrest him, shoot him because he is a criminal. Clear him off so that people will have rest of mind.
“It is not right to be in position of firearms. Our rule is that you shouldn’t go grazing with arms. You go with your stick and machete. The stick is used to control the cattle, and that machete is used to slaughter a cow that is about to die.”
We May Carry Out Resistance Attacks
An angry youth leader from one of the Tiv communities that have been affected told Ripples Nigeria that they may be forced to carry out resistance attacks should the killings of their people go on in this manner. “When you destroy a farm and the seedlings reserved, it means the farmer would be unable to farm the next season and this means that for one or two years, you have completely taken off the farmer’s livelihood. And yes, the premium the Fulani herdsman place on his cows is the premium a Tiv farmer places on his crops. If you value your cows, we also value our crops.
“Years ago when we were attacked in a manner like this, we went to attack their settlements, too and we killed their warlord. And do you know that for the next six months, there was no attack on our lands? When they saw that there was an organized resistance, they backed off. Before then, you can imagine, the private residence of our Tor Tiv was invaded and was occupied by the Fulani herdsmen.
“We may start going to the Fulani settlements to attack them, if these killings continue. Right now, we are barking, the Fulani herdsmen shouldn’t get us to biting.”
Weeping openly after an attack on Tarfi village, Binnev Ward in Buruku local government of Benue State, Governor Samuel Ortom also noted that they soon might resort to self-help if security agencies could not protect them.
Ticking Time Bomb
Nigeria is yet to fully recover from the catastrophic terror of the Boko Haram Islamic sect that has killed thousands and rendered millions homeless, especially, in the northeastern part of the country. The dreaded terrorists whose series of attacks date back to 2009 have been fighting to achieve their stated agenda of establishing caliphates across select northern states. Known to be vehemently against western education, Boko Haram terrorists have destroyed schools, churches, mosques, and government buildings.
The country may have to get itself prepared to fight another killer group rearing its destructive head through the agrarian settlements of Benue, the North-Central Nigerian state nicknamed, ‘the food basket of the nation’, even as the marauders have reached as far as Enugu State in the South East part of the country. The herdsmen menace may just be a time bomb which will explode, soon as affected communities decide to no longer turn the other cheek, but fight back in the name of self defence.
A timeline of attacks on these communities from 2013— when it reportedly started— till date shows that more than fifty communities have been attacked, and many of these communities totally razed down.
Governor of the state, Samuel Otom when he played host to the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) led by its President, Rev. Dr. Samson Ayokunle, recently at Government House, Markudi, cried out that 12 out of 23 local council areas in the state had remained under the siege of herdsmen for two years now.
Among the areas he listed include, Gwer-west, Kwande, Tarka , Buruku, Guma, Logo, Agatu, Gwer-East and Ukum. He also lamented that the inhuman activities of the brutish herdsmen had forced the locals out of their farmlands leading to food shortage, hunger, poverty and untold hardship on the people."
https://www.ripplesnigeria.com/investigations-they-want-our-lands-horror-brutal-killings-as-grazing-disputes-overwhelm-benue/
Thursday, 9 March 2017
Nigeria's woes being made worse by Fulani herdsmen.
"Due to a rising Fulani militancy, there are minority ethnic villages
in North Central Nigeria that suffer deliberate, coordinated,
systematic, and continuous attacks. Though this militia has killed
thousands of people in recent years, they continue to operate with
little to no government intervention. The nature of this violence
demonstrates that the Fulani militants have the potential to displace
Boko Haram as the greatest threat to Nigeria."
Due to a rising Fulani militancy, there are minority ethnic villages in North Central Nigeria that suffer deliberate,…
youtube.com
Tuesday, 14 February 2017
President Buhari's govt supports this terrible "rape" on the environment by snubbing calls for the ranching of cattle.
A perennial stream that serves hundreds of thousands of villagers as their only
source of drinking water in the Yandev/Mbayer area of Guma local govt
area, Benue state-central Nigeria, is
now shared between the people and herds of cattle belonging to heavily-armed nomadic Fulani herdsmen from north of the country. A desert scenario has already
emerged in most parts of the area, with cow dungs floating in endlessly
downstream.
Tuesday, 7 February 2017
From supposedly educated kinsmen of a group that is visiting mayhem on farmers in Nigeria:
1. Prof Ango Abdullahi: "Nobody can stop Fulani herdsmen from accessing other parts of Nigeria.
http://dailypost.ng/…/nobody-can-stop-fulani-herdsmen-from…/
2. Alhaji Sale Bayari: "A leader of the Fulani ethnic group has provided a detailed insight into why his people attacked the Agatu people of Benue, sacking several communities and killing hundreds.
In an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Saleh Bayeri, the Interim National Secretary of Gan Allah Fulani Association, rose in defence of his kinsmen, saying the February bloody conflict in Benue was a reprisal attack by his people against the Agatus who he accused of killing, in 2013, a prominent Fulani man.
Gan Allah Fulani Association is an umbrella body of Fulani associations in Nigeria.
Mr. Bayeri said the killing of the man reverberated amongst every Fulani in West Africa.
He insisted that the Agatu farmers were aggressors shedding crocodile tears, and wondered why former Senate President, David Mark, was only just realising the meaning of genocide...."
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/…/200426-exclusive-struck-aga…
3. Sultan of Sokoto: "Fulanis moving with guns are foreign terrorists;
http://www.vanguardngr.com/…/fulani-herdsmen-moving-guns-f…/
4. Prof Aminu Jubril: "They are carrying weapons for self-defence and they have been doing that for a long time. But as the sophistication of the society increases, the sophistication of their weapon increases. Before ,it was a stick.
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/…/fulani-herdsmen-killers-victi…/
5. Alhaji Bamanga Tukur: "Fulanis never breed trouble, foreigners dress-up like them to kill Nigerians – Tukur
http://dailypost.ng/…/fulanis-never-breed-trouble-foreign…/…
6. Gov El-Rufai and Miyeti Allah-Fulani cattle union: "Southern Kaduna Killings, reprisal attacks for 2011 post-presidential elections killings.
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/…/southern-kaduna-killings-repr…/
http://dailypost.ng/…/nobody-can-stop-fulani-herdsmen-from…/
2. Alhaji Sale Bayari: "A leader of the Fulani ethnic group has provided a detailed insight into why his people attacked the Agatu people of Benue, sacking several communities and killing hundreds.
In an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Saleh Bayeri, the Interim National Secretary of Gan Allah Fulani Association, rose in defence of his kinsmen, saying the February bloody conflict in Benue was a reprisal attack by his people against the Agatus who he accused of killing, in 2013, a prominent Fulani man.
Gan Allah Fulani Association is an umbrella body of Fulani associations in Nigeria.
Mr. Bayeri said the killing of the man reverberated amongst every Fulani in West Africa.
He insisted that the Agatu farmers were aggressors shedding crocodile tears, and wondered why former Senate President, David Mark, was only just realising the meaning of genocide...."
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/…/200426-exclusive-struck-aga…
3. Sultan of Sokoto: "Fulanis moving with guns are foreign terrorists;
http://www.vanguardngr.com/…/fulani-herdsmen-moving-guns-f…/
4. Prof Aminu Jubril: "They are carrying weapons for self-defence and they have been doing that for a long time. But as the sophistication of the society increases, the sophistication of their weapon increases. Before ,it was a stick.
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/…/fulani-herdsmen-killers-victi…/
5. Alhaji Bamanga Tukur: "Fulanis never breed trouble, foreigners dress-up like them to kill Nigerians – Tukur
http://dailypost.ng/…/fulanis-never-breed-trouble-foreign…/…
6. Gov El-Rufai and Miyeti Allah-Fulani cattle union: "Southern Kaduna Killings, reprisal attacks for 2011 post-presidential elections killings.
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/…/southern-kaduna-killings-repr…/
Friday, 3 February 2017
Educated Fulanis in Nigeria are the real culprits in these killings by Fulani herdsmen:
As long as educated Fulanis continue to use their illiterate kinsmen as
tools for their expansionist agenda by rejecting the ranch system and
encouraging the herdsmen to remain in the bush with cows, every crop
farmer will eventually become an enemy of fulani herdsmen, and by
implication all Fulanis.
Fulani elites in Nigeria have "upgraded" the age-long propensity of Fula people for dominance into cunning sadism in which they smilingly sacrifice their own kinsmen for goals that they know are impossible to achieve or sustain in this 21st century. Their children and close relatives are sent to schools to qualify for modern leadership positions in the townships, while the rest are fed with supremacist theories and used as canon folders for territorial expansion in the wilds. You can't see the children of their hundreds of professors or of even those who completed just secondary school roaming with cattle in the bush. This is wickedness without boundary!
Educated Fulanis know the economic benefits of the ranch system; and they have for long ruled this country and influenced the establishment of many industries in their part of the country. Why then have they not deemed it fit to use their positions to influence the establishment of ranches for their cattle in their own areas as they have done with dams and many other federally-funded projects? They have more than enough land, manpower,veterinary doctors and other professionals in that field. To prove that they are the architects of these killings, they refused to touch the 100billion naira set aside by the previous govt as funds for cattle owners to access and build their own ranches. Instead, they were asking the states to use the money to build ranches/grazing reserves for them across the country. There were none of these illiterate herdsmen roaming with cattle on that negotiation table, they were all educated Fulanis! Are they aware that civilised nations the world over no longer practice open grazing of cattle? Yes they know!
Fellow Nigerians, judge for yourselves who are the real culprits in this mindless mass-killing of our farmers by the so-called Fulani herdsmen.
Fulani elites in Nigeria have "upgraded" the age-long propensity of Fula people for dominance into cunning sadism in which they smilingly sacrifice their own kinsmen for goals that they know are impossible to achieve or sustain in this 21st century. Their children and close relatives are sent to schools to qualify for modern leadership positions in the townships, while the rest are fed with supremacist theories and used as canon folders for territorial expansion in the wilds. You can't see the children of their hundreds of professors or of even those who completed just secondary school roaming with cattle in the bush. This is wickedness without boundary!
Educated Fulanis know the economic benefits of the ranch system; and they have for long ruled this country and influenced the establishment of many industries in their part of the country. Why then have they not deemed it fit to use their positions to influence the establishment of ranches for their cattle in their own areas as they have done with dams and many other federally-funded projects? They have more than enough land, manpower,veterinary doctors and other professionals in that field. To prove that they are the architects of these killings, they refused to touch the 100billion naira set aside by the previous govt as funds for cattle owners to access and build their own ranches. Instead, they were asking the states to use the money to build ranches/grazing reserves for them across the country. There were none of these illiterate herdsmen roaming with cattle on that negotiation table, they were all educated Fulanis! Are they aware that civilised nations the world over no longer practice open grazing of cattle? Yes they know!
Fellow Nigerians, judge for yourselves who are the real culprits in this mindless mass-killing of our farmers by the so-called Fulani herdsmen.
Wednesday, 1 February 2017
President Buhari's govt remains silent as Fulani herdsmen continue to attack farming communities.
At least 10 people have been killed and several houses burnt
in fresh violence that erupted on Tuesday in Taraba State North Eastern
Nigeria, witnesses say.
But police said six people died in the clashes between the Fulani and Mummuye ethnic groups in Lau Local Government area of the state.
Since last Friday, there have been pockets of violence and reprisal attacks in some communities in the area.
Between Friday and Saturday, eight persons were reportedly killed during communal clashes between the Mummuye and the Fulani communities of Lushi, Sakuwa, Hore Ladde and Garin Dogo.
The latest killings and destruction of properties, including farmlands and domestic animals, is coming barely a week after the state governor, Darius Ishaku, was quoted in the media as urging Christians across the country to rise up and defend themselves against terrorists before they are annihilated.
The governor made the call in Jalingo during a thanksgiving service organised by the Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN) to celebrate new year and to pray for victims of Southern Kaduna massacre and other victims of terrorism across the country said.
‘’The people must wake up from their slumber and defend themselves. You can’t just lie down and allow yourselves to be annihilated by other groups. You have a constitutional right to self-defense and now is the time to use it. The government alone cannot do it,” he was quoted as saying.
Locals say Tuesday’s violence started around 2 a.m. when a village, named Bonja, and Mayo-Kunga belonging to Fulani ethnic group, was attacked by suspected Mummuye youth.
The attack on the Mayo-Kunga village led to reprisals attacks on neighbouring communities.
The Police Public Relations Officer for Taraba State, David Misal, said only six people were killed in the conflict.
“Since the Friday attack between the Fulani herdsmen and Mummuye farmers in Lushi, there have been reprisal attacks.
‘’For now six persons were confirmed killed on both sides while several others have been arrested,” the PPRO said.
Mr. Misal, an Assistant superintendent of police, also confirmed that 80 houses had been torched.
http://tarabafacts.com.ng/?p=1482
But police said six people died in the clashes between the Fulani and Mummuye ethnic groups in Lau Local Government area of the state.
Since last Friday, there have been pockets of violence and reprisal attacks in some communities in the area.
Between Friday and Saturday, eight persons were reportedly killed during communal clashes between the Mummuye and the Fulani communities of Lushi, Sakuwa, Hore Ladde and Garin Dogo.
The latest killings and destruction of properties, including farmlands and domestic animals, is coming barely a week after the state governor, Darius Ishaku, was quoted in the media as urging Christians across the country to rise up and defend themselves against terrorists before they are annihilated.
The governor made the call in Jalingo during a thanksgiving service organised by the Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN) to celebrate new year and to pray for victims of Southern Kaduna massacre and other victims of terrorism across the country said.
‘’The people must wake up from their slumber and defend themselves. You can’t just lie down and allow yourselves to be annihilated by other groups. You have a constitutional right to self-defense and now is the time to use it. The government alone cannot do it,” he was quoted as saying.
Locals say Tuesday’s violence started around 2 a.m. when a village, named Bonja, and Mayo-Kunga belonging to Fulani ethnic group, was attacked by suspected Mummuye youth.
The Police Public Relations Officer for Taraba State, David Misal, said only six people were killed in the conflict.
“Since the Friday attack between the Fulani herdsmen and Mummuye farmers in Lushi, there have been reprisal attacks.
‘’For now six persons were confirmed killed on both sides while several others have been arrested,” the PPRO said.
Mr. Misal, an Assistant superintendent of police, also confirmed that 80 houses had been torched.
http://tarabafacts.com.ng/?p=1482
Wednesday, 4 January 2017
Nigerian Farmers Also Need United Nations' Help To Save Them From Fulani Militias.
The Darfur crisis in Sudan in which Arab militias called "Janjaweed"
have killed hundreds of thousands of sedentary black African Farmers and
displaced nearly five million others has pitched the world against
president Omar Al-Bashir, against whom an arrest warrant has been issued
by the International Criminal court in the Hague for his alleged
support of the barbaric militia group. Arab herdsmen who migrated from
their indigenous areas in the northern part of the country with their
animals in search of greener pastures introduced violence as a means to
acquiring grazing areas from the natives. Resistance from the locals
resulted to the formation of the dreaded Jajaweed militia that went on
one of the most gory killing sprees-next only to the Rwandan Genocide-in
recent times.
In Nigeria, following the same pattern, Fulani herdsmen from the northern part of the country and their kinsmen from some African countries have descended on farming communities across the country, particularly the Middle Belt area, with their cattle and have turned the area into a killing field. Thousands have been killed since 2011 when they intensified the attacks (in the same barbaric manner like the Janjaweed) against Nigerian crop farmers. It is interesting to note that our security forces have, so far, not been "able" to confront these militias. It is also interesting to note that the Federal govt under president Buhari has bluntly ruled out the use of the military to halt the killings. According the the interior minister, the crisis is an internal security issue to be handled solely by the police. Yet the same govt launched a military task force, attended by the president himself, to protect cattle against rustlers within the same country.
As Nigeria continues to deploy her military personnel to Darfur, Sudan, many Nigerians would be wondering why a country that sends its police and military forces to maintain peace in other countries in crisis that are purely internal to those countries would refuse to use the same military to resolve one of the major security problems in the country.
We need intervention from the United Nations to resolve the Fulani herdsmen crisis!
In Nigeria, following the same pattern, Fulani herdsmen from the northern part of the country and their kinsmen from some African countries have descended on farming communities across the country, particularly the Middle Belt area, with their cattle and have turned the area into a killing field. Thousands have been killed since 2011 when they intensified the attacks (in the same barbaric manner like the Janjaweed) against Nigerian crop farmers. It is interesting to note that our security forces have, so far, not been "able" to confront these militias. It is also interesting to note that the Federal govt under president Buhari has bluntly ruled out the use of the military to halt the killings. According the the interior minister, the crisis is an internal security issue to be handled solely by the police. Yet the same govt launched a military task force, attended by the president himself, to protect cattle against rustlers within the same country.
As Nigeria continues to deploy her military personnel to Darfur, Sudan, many Nigerians would be wondering why a country that sends its police and military forces to maintain peace in other countries in crisis that are purely internal to those countries would refuse to use the same military to resolve one of the major security problems in the country.
We need intervention from the United Nations to resolve the Fulani herdsmen crisis!
The
Nigerian Army has prepared additional 45 officers and 755 combat-ready
troops for deployment to Darfur region in Sudan to compliment United
Nations peace mission in…
dailytrust.com.ng
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)