The hearts of many young women in Miango District in Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State are riddled with indelible scars following the untimely deaths of their breadwinners. The women had looked forward to lifelong marital bliss with their husbands but murderous herdsmen shattered their dreams by putting their soul mates to the sword, leaving the hapless widows with the onerous task of fending for their families including their sickly children all alone, INNOCENT DURU reports.

• Female survivors of herders’ attacks relive ordeal

• ‘How they killed my husband in my presence’

A sword was driven into the heart of Maria Yakubu, a 40-year-old mother of seven, recently when some killer herders invaded her family farmland and hacked her husband to death in her presence. It was a horrendous incident has left indelible scars in her heart.

Her effort on a daily basis to put the thought of the ugly scene behind her crashes like a pack of cards. It is a daily dose of trauma as her mind repeatedly flashes back to her husband’s helpless scream for help until his assailants killed and butchered him like a sacrificial animal.

As she stealthily stole away from the scene of the horrifying incident, the pitiful voice of her dying husband echoed in her ears and reverberated in her head.

“My husband and I were together on the farm on the fateful day he was killed,” Maria said, gazing into the sky as if remembering their last moments together.

“We were tilling the soil to plant the seeds with which we would feed the family and also sell to make some money when some herdsmen invaded the farm and pounced on him. They killed him instantly while I narrowly escaped.

“I have been highly traumatised by the experience. I had no inkling that it was the last time I would see my husband. We were married for 20 years and our marriage produced seven children.

“My husband was a farmer. I am also a farmer.”

Worried about the future of her children, she said: “I am left with seven children and it has been a herculean task taking care of them.

“Some of them are still in primary school while some others have dropped out of school. They are out of school because I don’t have the wherewithal to pay their school fees.

“I am worried because I want my children to go to school. It was their father’s wish that all of them should be educated. Unfortunately that dream is hanging in the balance.

“I wish they could all get help to go to school to make my husband’s spirit happy. We have been displaced and can’t go back to our farms to till the soil and earn a living. Life has been extremely challenging. We live from hand to mouth and only God knows when this will end.”

The embattled communities have been under attacks by murderous herdsmen for some time now.

Many of the natives have had to flee the rural communities as the killings continued unabated. Many women have consequently become widows as their husbands sent them to safe haven and stayed back to work on the farms to cater for their families. The men have continued to be mindlessly attacked and killed in the course of working on their farms.

Such was also the experience of Hannah Timothy, a 37-year-old mother of three. The husband had been interested in going to a higher institution from childhood. So, in spite of the lean income he was getting from his farming venture, he struggled to gain admission into a higher institution and laboured hard to pay his school fees.  Against all odds, he completed his education and felt very happy to achieve his life-long ambition.  But the joy was short-lived as he was murdered in the course of preparing for his National Youth Service Corps programme.

Hannah said: “We were married for just six years and our marriage produced three children. My husband was a student and a farmer. He was using the money he was getting from farming to train himself in school.

“He had completed his education and was waiting to be mobilised for the National Youth Service Corps scheme when he was attacked and killed on the farm.”

She recalled that “before the incident, the men in our communities had asked all the women and children to leave for another community because of the incessant attacks by herders. So I was not with him when he was killed. The sad news of his death was brought to me by our kinsmen.

“It has been hectic taking care of the children. One of my children is epileptic. He falls from time to time. I often take him to the hospital for treatment and that requires borrowing money here and there to pay his hospital bills.

“To pay back the debts, I engage in manual labour but the money I get is grossly inadequate. Farming is the primary source of income for us but we can’t access our farms anymore. We are not feeding well.

“The education of my children is also threatened as I rely on people to pay their school fees. This wouldn’t have been the case if their father were alive.

“My husband was a lover of education and that was why he made sure he completed his education against all odds.

“I will be seriously hurt if my children are unable to surpass their father’s academic feat. My husband desired to give them the best. It will be my joy to see that dream come true.”

Another widow, 37 years old Asabe Bullus, said her marriage to her late husband produced children. She said: “We were married for 20 years. I was not with my husband when he was killed. The sad news was brought to me by our people.

“It was as if I was dreaming when they told me about it. For a long time, I couldn’t come to terms with the pains of losing him. He meant so much to me and the children.

“In spite of the spate of mindless killings going on in our place, I never for once thought that my husband would die so soon.

“Some of my children can’t go to school again because there is no money to pay their fees. I have no means of earning a living for now because we can’t access our farms anymore.

“The herders have chased us out of our communities. If you attempt to go to the farm, they will kill you. We have been depending on support from people to take care of our needs.

“We want help to return to our land. It appears our plight is not touching the heart of anybody. Our people are being killed like rats and nobody shows concern. The future of our children is in danger.

“Our land is regularly being soaked by the blood of our husbands.  We need help. The state and federal governments should come to our aid.”

Also lamenting her predicament, Jumail Garuba, 45, said: “I have seven children and was married for 23 years. I really feel bad about the murder of my husband.

“It is disheartening that our husbands who stayed back to protect our communities are daily being killed by the herdsmen. What have we done to deserve this high level of wickedness?

“Tens of children are being made fatherless daily and many women like me are widows. This is cruel. We don’t deserve this.

“How do I singlehandedly take care of seven children? I never bargained for this at all.

“If they had allowed us to go to the farm, it would have been a bit easier as we would be able to plant and harvest what we can use to cater for our children. Unfortunately, they kill and prevent us from entering our farmlands.”

Also decrying her plight, Lami David, 31, said: “I have five kids. I was married to my husband for 13 years.  My husband was a farmer. He was killed by herdsmen.

“It has been a harrowing experience without him.  We practically depend on people for everything we need. To make matters worse, one of my children is epileptic and also suffering from hernia.

“I took him to hospital and they said they would have to carry out surgery on him. I don’t know where the money to pay for that will come from.

“It gives me a lot of concern but I have learnt to put my trust in God. If God could be using people to provide our needs for us, I am sure he would send someone to help settle my son’s hospital bills.”

 

Attacks started over 20 years ago – Humanitarian Response Team chair

The Chairman of Humanitarian Response Team for all the attacks, Gastor Barriett, said the attacks started over 20 years ago and “what happened at that time was they would just enter a community and kill people.

“But destruction of farms started around 2017 when the attacks took an entirely new dimension. By 2018 the attacks peaked. They entered and chopped down farms running into several hectares.

“They would use a whole night to do that. Last year, 2021, about 18 communities lost all their farms because the herders entered with their cattle and grazed on all the farmlands. That is how this has been affecting our farmers. It is either they chop the crops down or they use their cattle to graze on the farms.”

The herders, according to him, have killed many farmers they met on the farms.  “They kill farmers both in the wet season and dry season.  They kill males and females alike. This has been affecting food supply in our communities.

“It has really, really, really affected food supply.  Like I said earlier, about 18 communities lost all their farmlands when the cattle grazed on them last year.  This year, people can no longer go back to those communities to go and farm.

“In fact, there is famine in our communities because people could not farm last year and this year, again, most people have not been able to farm.

“Again when the herders attack, they also burn down food barns and stores. There is famine as I speak to you. People are struggling to feed.”

Communities lament abandonment by Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs

The Chairman of the Humanitarian Response Team for all the attacks,  Gastor Barriett, and other members of the communities have called on the Federal Government through the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, to come to the aid of the people.

He regretted that the people had not received any form of assistance from the federal government in spite of the widespread killings and destruction in the area. He urged the humanitarian ministry to extend similar help it gave to victims of Boko Haram insurgents to his people.

The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, had in 2020 provided relief for victims of flood and Boko Haram in Borno State.

The Minister, Hajiya Sadiya Farouq reportedly said she was in Maiduguri to discuss the immediate humanitarian needs of the state.

“I am here on behalf of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and members of the National Humanitarian Coordination Committee (NHCC), to discuss the immediate humanitarian needs of your state.

“I will also like to use this opportunity to applaud the efforts of the State Government in providing food and non-food items to its vulnerable population; as well as your willingness to work with and support Humanitarian stakeholders providing humanitarian interventions in your state.

“Your Excellency, we have noted and are aware that due to the recent restriction of movement to curtail the COVID-19 pandemic and inaccessibility of communities due to floods and insecurity; vulnerable persons, especially the IDPs, may require further support in terms of basic necessities including food from federal government,” Farouq said.

The minister said the food items included 26,067 bags of 12.5kg rice; 26,067 bags of 25kg beans; 26,067 bags of 12.5kg maize/millet; 1,304 bags of 20kg salt 2,607 – 20L kegs of vegetable oil 4,345 cartons of seasoning cubes and 2,173 cartons of tin tomatoes.

She urged the state government to provide the necessary information required to enable the Nigerian Air Force to drop food and non-food items in locations that were inaccessible due to insecurity and floods in the state.

The embattled people of Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State said similar gestures should be extended to them.

Seven years ago, Hamad Muhammad Kagamu started the business of buying and selling grains with N170,000 as capital. Along the line, about 20 other people joined him in the business as dormant partners and with their money he grew it into a multi-million naira business about seven years later when he was only 35 years old.

Although he had no western education, he was successful partly because he is well versed in Hausa and Arabic languages. He travels from Nigeria to Chad, Cameroon and Niger buying soyabeans, beniseeds and other grains in trucks for sale to companies in Kano.

At the beginning of the business about seven years ago, he was short of funds until the 20 investors aforementioned came in to support the business with their funds.

The contract between him and the investors looked simple, lucrative and attractive as he paid them between N100,000 and N200,00 as returns on their investments every week.

Even the investors that earned less than N100,000 per month had no reason to complain so they still felt that Kagamu’s business was worth investing in since they did not have to sweat before they got whatever accrued to them.

Consequently, he was able to attract quite a sizeable number of investors ranging from ordinary street hawkers to top civil servants, retirees and varsity and polytechnic lecturers until he started running into trouble about two years ago.

He said: “I started going to the market with the sum of N170,000 seven years ago.

“Then, I was doing the business alone. But later, these 20 people joined me.

“When I was doing it alone, a lot of people were happy with me because the business was successful. That was how they started giving me money to expand the business and give them profit.

“As we were doing the business, the money started growing from N170,000 to N1 million, N5 million, N10 million to over N100 million.”

When he noticed that his capital had grown remarkably, he started going as far as Cameroon to buy soyabeans and beniseeds.

Trouble however, began at the point that Kagamu hit on the idea of going beyond the nation’s borders to countries like Cameroon and Chad to buy cash crops for sale to some companies in Kano.

To achieve his new business objective, he needed an international passport. It was in the process of obtaining one that he fell into the hands of fraudsters who defrauded him of millions of naira.

Soon, he was no longer able to pay some of his business partners and investors their monthly returns.

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He started initially by delaying payments until he was unable to pay them for months.

Unfortunately, he did not tell any of them about his travails or provide any explanation for breaching the contracts he had with them.

Soon, the investors, many of whom had borrowed the sums they invested from banks or cooperative societies, could not take the delay anymore. Some of the investors were said to have sold their houses and other landed properties and to invest in Kagamu’s produce business.

Initially, the aggrieved investors lodged a complaint with the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) in Gombe, asking the command to help them retrieve more than N40 million from Kagamu.

Unfortunately, he was said not to have cooperated with the command when its men commenced investigation into the matter.

At the press briefing addressed by the Commandant, Waziri Goni, Kagamu refused to respond to the questions posed to him by journalists and NSCDC men. He also did not allow the journalists to video or take camera shots of him as he opted to lie on the ground face down and rebuffed all entreaties for him to get up.

However, as NSCDC men intensified investigation, more and more of the aggrieved investors surfaced until the sum he owed them rose to N102 million at the last count.

The Commandant of the NSCDC in Gombe State, Malam Waziri Goni, alleged that Kagamu took some of the money he owed the creditors between the months of January and March this year, promising them heavy returns.

“However, months after the business transaction expected to take just 24 hours, Kakamu refused to return both money and profit to the contributors.

“He took the money from them as shareholders in a produce business which has been going on for the past seven years but later refused to pay back both money and profit.

“When he was accosted, he started giving all sorts of excuses until he later confessed that the money was sent to someone in Yola who is already at large.

“He also said one of his colleagues is in Cameroon dealing in CFA money exchange.

“We are conducting investigation on it already, and very soon, he will appear in court and face trial according to law,” Goni said.

According to him, Gombe State and the North East in general has high risk of fraudulent business transactions being carried out by mostly youths who are duping unsuspecting victims.

He reckoned that many of their victims have suffered high blood pressure while some others have died after they were duped of their hard earned money.

One of the victims, Mohammed Goje, said he knew Kagamu through his cousin who introduced him about three years ago.

Goje said: “I know him through my cousin, Ahmad Sabo, a business man in Gombe here. Fifteen of us are involved in the business.

“We sent money through Ahmad Sabo to buy soya beans and others, but along the line, he refused to give us any feedback on the transaction.

“Since January, Ahmad Sabo has transferred the sum of N32,490,000 to him for all of us including Ahmad Sabo himself and later another N15 million.

“The sum total of the money we have with him now is N40,709,564 million.

“Since then, he has been playing hide and seek over a business that should not last more than 24 hours after the produce is measured.

“What we discovered is that his statements are incoherent because he was unable to tell us where the money is and what he used it for.”

Another victim, Hamad Umar said he sold his land and added the money to the one he made from the harvest from his farm last year to invest in Kagamu’s produce business.

He said: “All the money I gave him was N650,000. I had to sell my land and put the money together with the one I made from my farm so I could invest.

“Initially, I wanted to start building my own house. But the money was not enough. So I thought that if I invested in his business, I would be able to raise enough money to build the house for my family. But now it seems that I have lost everything.”

Umar said he had been struggling to survive by selling video CDs and tapes in the market and also go to farm during the farming season.

Commandant Goni warned that people should be wary of the kind of business they invest in and the kind of people they do business with.

He said: “The sad aspect of the whole thing is that there was no written record of business transaction between him and all these people.

“The only evidence we have is the bank statements that confirmed that truly they sent money to him. But there was no contract agreement he signed with any one of them.

“Yes, it is good to do business on trust. It is one of those things required in doing business. But putting it down in black and white makes such business safe for both parties.”