The gruesome killing of 16 persons believed to be hunters returning from Rivers to Kano state some two weeks ago is reprehensible and will, forever, leave a sore taste in the mouth. It is gruesome in the extreme and shows in a grim manner what killer Fulani herdsmen, long embedded in Southern forests during the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, do on a daily basis.
Even when during the pandemic the President declared illegal all interstate travels, he could very well have been talking to the marines as thousands of these Northerners were furiously being hauled in trucks to no particular addresses in the South .
As I showed in the article:’The recrudescence of criminal Fulani herders’ kidnapping activities in the Southwest’ of 23 March, 2025, these killers reportedly nestling in over 50 camps in the Southwest alone, and their cousins in other Southern parts, were doing nothing besides answering to the following FUNAM DICTUM:
“We your leaders held meetings across the key Northern States of Sokoto, Bornu, Katsina, Kano, Yobe, Kebbi, Bauchi and Kaduna. Our resolve is that Northern youths should move enmasse to Southern States. Relaunch the mass movement in ways they have never seen … If the towns and cities are hostile, hang out on the street corners, in uncompleted buildings, occupy the forests, pitch tents, make any where available as your abode, your rest places, your home.We urge you to be armed. The infidels may want to attack you”.
Since then it has been tears and more tears everywhere in the South and there had been no Southern groups threatening, claiming that the heavens was about to fall.
But I think it is time Southerners convey press conferences daily, to announce that a Fulani herdsman, even with no cow at all, has again killed, or kidnapped, a Southern Nigerian.
It seems to me that only such can mollify this furious harassment and blackmail from the North.
Incidences are countless in and around Uromi, Edo state, and other parts of southern Nigeria of murderous Fulani herdsmen daily wreaking havoc, raping, kidnapping and killing at any or all hours of day, and night since they now know the terrain only too well. Neither the bush nor highway is any longer safe.
That the same is the fate of non- Fulani Nigerians in the North was amply demonstrated in the Plateau killings of this past week when gunmen killed no less than 52 people and displaced nearly 2,000 others over several days of attacks in six villages in Plateau’s Bokkos district, reminding one of December 2023 when more than 100 people were killed in the same district.
This is what Nigerians suffer in the hands of murderous Fulanis, yet their politicians and so- called elders are adept at threatening and blackmailing governments, vowing retaliation on the one occasion they get paid in their own coins.
Below, in an abridged form, is how the PUNCH Editorial of 6 April, 2025, very dispassionately did justice to its well- earned reputation by brilliantly capturing all the issues at stake in the matter of the unfortunate Uromi killings, perpetrators of which it says must be apprehended and tried.
It wrote inter alia: “
.”The Edo State Government and the security agencies must activate mechanisms to identify the culprits of the dastardly act. They must be brought before a court of competent jurisdiction and tried justly.
The caveat: the security agencies should do their work with tact and not become an army of occupation terrorising innocent members of the Uromi community.
As the outrage deepens, with the police, military and other security agencies invading Uromi, Nigeria is missing one crucial point. There is a clear precursor to the killing of the Uromi 16: the provocative bloodshed by Fulani herders across Nigeria.
In February, Edo witnessed the death of 27 farmers. Initially, the state government reported 22 deaths. The casualty figure jumped to 27 by the end of the month. Governor Monday Okpebholo did not move into action then or offer to pay compensation to the victims’ families.
Beyond Edo, Nigerians have been constantly inundated by the rapine of Fulani herdsmen, with little respite from the state and federal governments.
Farmers are under siege and unable to go to their farms in Plateau, Benue, Ekiti, Ondo, Nasarawa, Ogun, and many other states.
Many farmers are paying tribute to Islamic terrorists. Fulani herdsmen, with a sense of gross entitlement, encroach on farmlands and kill farmers for preventing them from violating their livelihoods. Massacres, arson, rape, and killings have become the norm for these violent Fulani herdsmen.
In 2014, the Global Terrorism Index listed Fulani herdsmen among the four most dangerous terrorist groups in the world because of their killing spree in Nigeria.
On New Year’s Day in 2018, Fulani herdsmen slaughtered 72 persons in Benue State. President Muhammadu Buhari feigned ignorance about the massacre.
The bloodthirsty herdsmen murdered over 40 people in Ukpabi Nimbo, Enugu State, in 2016. The Federal Government has not prosecuted any of the perpetrators.
In December 2023, Fulani herdsmen continued their atrocities in Plateau State, killing over 140 residents in 62 villages during the Christmas period.
The outrage simmered down shortly thereafter without the arrest or prosecution of any invader.
So, the hypocrisy of the Federal Government and security forces in handling such incidents is glaring.
This selective justice raises troubling questions about the value placed on the life of a Southern Nigerian and a Northern Nigerian.
When an Adamawa State farmer, Sunday Jackson, killed a Fulani intruder on his farm in self-defence in 2015, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence against him, even though he should have been tried for manslaughter.
Yet, when Fulani herdsmen carry out mass killings across the country, the government feigns ignorance, remains silent, or reacts tepidly.
Until Nigeria embraces the rule of law and discards partiality in the dispensation of justice, the cycle of violence will persist.”
The Tinubu government has established a Ministry of Livestock to encourage ranching: Livestock farmers should take advantage of it instead of practising the divisive and outdated open herding system.
It is not only Fulani herdsmen.
Islamic extremists have been responsible for numerous killings. The 2016 murder of Eunice Olawale, a Christian preacher in Abuja, attracted no outrage in Northern Nigeria or among the security forces that have now trooped to Edo State.
In 2007, the pupils of Toyin Oluwasesin murdered her on the untenable accusation of abusing the Koran. None of the 16 pupils were brought to justice by the Gombe State Government or the Federal Government.
In Sokoto State, the colleagues of Deborah Samuel lynched her on flimsy grounds of writing against Islam; the 2022 case has died down with no justice for the victim.
The Federal Government practically ignored the brutal killing of Funke Olakunrin, the daughter of Afenifere leader, Reuben Fasoranti by Fulani herdsmen in 2019 in Ondo State.
When violence is met with indifference, it emboldens criminals to act with impunity.
International observers have repeatedly warned about the unchecked violence of Fulani herdsmen. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented the widespread attacks and government inaction.
Some estimates suggest that Fulani militias have killed over 3,600 people since 2015, making them one of the deadliest non-state armed groups in Africa.
The solution lies in a comprehensive security overhaul. The Nigerian Police Force is understaffed and ill-equipped to handle the country’s security challenges.
Therefore, Nigeria should decentralise policing and allow for the creation of state police to enable governors to protect their domains effectively.
Security agencies must leverage intelligence to prevent attacks rather than merely reacting after the fact.
Farmers must be protected, and perpetrators of violence must be prosecuted to serve as deterrents. Without true federalism, Nigeria is doomed.
The Federal Government should rise above ethnic biases and ensure that every Nigerian life is valued equally.
Selective justice and political correctness have eroded trust in the state’s ability to protect its people…”
No government, federal or state, worth its name, must permit itself to be hoodwinked or blackmailed (to make money) by the slew of Press conferences by Northerners, read as Fulani – inspired, and allow itself be misdirected in its actions.
If, as they have threatened, this is the occasion for the North to opt out of the federation so be it because whoever comes to equity must come with a clean conscience.
Just recall that not even President Buhari empathised with grieving Benue people after they have mass buried about 70 persons killed by Fulani herdsmen in Guma and Logo areas of the state but remembered to tell them to live in peace with their neighbours – the same villains.
If the federal government does not want a backlash from Nigerians
then it must treat them like it treats Fulanis.
No Nigerian is more Nigerian than the other.
