When six years ago the insurgents called boko harm started their terrorist activities in various part of the country many people in the eastern part of nigeria believed it was a religious and ethnic agenda targeted at christians and igbo-speaking people. As the activities of the fundamentalists spread across the country including the federal capital territory many discerning natives started having a rethink. When the insurgents became more rascally by attacking even mosques, motor parks and schools everybody knew it’s not an ethnic agenda.
Now the problem of herdsman rearing their flocks in the southern parts of the country and farmers producing crops in their host community is trying the oneness of the country. Here in the south east folks believe the cattle rearers are fulani and that they are all muslims. A majority opinion among the uninformed down here is that the herdsmen are used to pursue ethnic/religious agenda. Some even suggest that as a fulani-muslim, the president of the country, muhamadu bahari, is sympathising with his kinsmen, the herdsmen.
Various governments in the country are morally duty bound to disabuse the minds of the ordinary man on the street and let them know that no section of nigerian socity is selected for maltreatment, injustic, or genocide. As a matter of fact, the supicion of the northen hegemony as was the case in the sixties is no long tenable. More affirmative actions need to be deployed to allay the fear of collusion by some authorities or individuals by victims of the attacks. With the recent lifting of cattle from gusau in the north to lagos in the west by railway is great expectation.
While proactive measures are being pursued, culprits of the heinous crime of killing of innocent residents and destruction of farms should be arrested immediately.
We are yet to see or hear of herdsmen appearing in court to face trials for their criminal activities. Probably probe panels may be good but we must go beyond probing.
A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), the Civil Rights Realisation and Advancement Network, (CRRAN) yesterday filed a suit against the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris and the Attorney General of Enugu State, Meletus Eze over the continued detention of some suspected masterminds of Nimbo massacre without trial.
According to the President of CRRAN, Olu Omotayo, “We today filed a suit at the Federal High court, Enugu against the Attorney General of Enugu State, Barrister Meletus Eze and the Inspector General of Police, in view of the blatant refusal of the Attorney to perform his constitutional duty to arraign the five detained suspects for criminal trial despite our written application to his office to that effect.”
Omotayo said five suspects were paraded in relation to the attack at the Police Headquarters in Abuja on the 25th of May.
The names of the arrested suspects are: Mohammed Zurei, Ciroma Musa, Saleh Adamu, Suleiman Laute and Haruna Laute.
Omotayo maintained that there was overwhelming evidence against the suspects, as one of them was found with a video recording of the massacre, and questioned the refusal of the Attorney General to call for the case file and commence the criminal trial of the suspects on grounds that he needs the consent of the Federal Government to institute a trial.
He said: “The position of the Attorney is a blackmail against the Federal Government, as the case is not a political matter or one that needs the consent of the Federal Attorney General before action could be taken.”
He explained that if the arrested suspects are arraigned before a court of competent jurisdiction, it will serve the interest of justice for the aggrieved citizens of the state.
It will be recalled that on the 25th of April, some gunmen invaded the town of Ukpabi Nimbo in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State and attacked residents of the community, leading to the death of over 40 people, while houses and properties were destroyed.
No date has however, been fixed for hearing of the suit as at the time of filing this report.
Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu yesterday frowned on incessant attacks in Igbo land and other parts of the country by suspected Fulani herdsmen.
He advised the affected states to pass legislations that would restrict cattle rearing to modern ranches. The senator also suggested the setting up of forest rangers to enforce such laws.
A statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Uche Anichukwu, said Ekweremadu noted that unless Nigeria was restructured to make it more efficient and productive, it would be difficult for the country to wriggle out of its security challenges, pervasive poverty and retarded growth.
The deputy senate president said successive leaders would only be dealing with the symptoms and not the root causes of a festering illness.
The statement said Ekweremadu spoke at the weekend in New York, the United States of America (U.S.A), during this year’s Convention of the World Igbo Congress (WIC).
The senator noted that while the country awaited the much-needed restructuring, the incessant havoc by suspected Fulani herdsmen was unacceptable because it had monumental socio-economic consequences on the nation.
He hailed various state governments for managing the humanitarian crisis resulting from the attacks and for ensuring that there was no breakdown of law and order.
Ekweremadu said every legitimate step should be taken to end the herdsmen menace and avoid a situation where the people would resort to self-help.
He said: “Governments of the various states in Igbo land and indeed other parts of the country should immediately consider enacting legislations that confine cattle-rearing to modern ranches, as obtainable in developed societies.
“In fact, our governments could go a step further to invest in constructing and leasing out modern ranches.
“This will produce healthier animals, give better produce, provide employment, added value to the farm produce and help in promoting peaceful co-existence as well as sifting armed bandits and terrorists from real farmers doing legitimate business.”
Ekweremadu warned that the enforcement of such measures should not be left to federal security agencies alone.
He said: “Sadly, when you enact laws to checkmate the menace, as Ekiti State has commendably done, you will still rely on the same security institutions to enforce them. This is the dilemma.
“Therefore, our state governments should take further steps by ensuring that such legislations provide for enforcement bodies, such as Forest Rangers, which will consistently comb the forests to ensure that those who run foul of the laws are arrested and speedily prosecuted to serve as deterrent to others.”
The deputy Senate president regretted that “successive military regimes reneged on the core ingredients of a federal structure agreed upon by our founding fathers at various constitutional conferences leading up to independence, as the basis of the Nigerian union”.
He added: “Over the years, we have moved from a strong and viable three-regional federal structure to a weak, spendthrift and unwieldy 36-state structure. We moved from a decentralised police system that allowed the federating units to take greater charge of security of life and property in their territories to a centralised police system in which one man at the centre pretends to be in full charge of security of lives and property in the creeks of the Niger Delta, the cocoa farms of the Southwest, the expansive land mass of the North and the hinterlands of the Southeast.
“We also moved from fiscal federalism, which encouraged productivity and competitive development to a feeding bottle federalism that runs on free oil money, encouraging indolence, corruption and lack of creativity in governance.
“Now, you can see why the cost of governance is so high; why states can no longer pay salaries; why neither the Federal Government nor the federating units cared to invest, but lived off their allocations like lottery proceeds over the years; why it is difficult for a state governor to sack rampaging suspected herdsmen and why those who have the authority to call the security agencies to action to stop the menace may not be quick in their response.”
Ekweremadu urged the Ndigbo in the Diaspora to join the current debate on Nigeria’s restructuring because “it is at the heart of the forward-movement”.
The senator regretted that efforts and calls to restructure the country had always fallen on deaf ears because some people felt favoured by the current arrangement.
He insisted that the message should be continually passed that “he who pins another to the floor is also detaining himself”.
Ekweremadu said: “With good faith and realistic restructuring, every part of Nigeria, Igbo land inclusive, will explode in prosperity, the expected initial challenges notwithstanding. The good thing is that we can set a timeline and adopt an incremental approach to allay unfounded fears and misgivings that have held us down.”
The big question begging for an answer in the public domain since the precarious incident of the herdsmen attacks on communities and innocent citizens of the country is whether the heinous acts should be categorized as a state or national issue.
The above question is against the backdrop of the continuous attacks in recent times which have led to wanton destruction of lives and property of the people. What is more worrisome is the fact that the Federal Government, which is constitutionally saddled with the responsibility of protecting lives and property of the citizenry through its security agencies such as the Nigeria Police Force, the Army, the State Security Services (SSS), among others, has not taken decisive actions against the ceaseless and inhuman atrocities of the herdsmen.
The worries remain that the present administration has not treated the herdsmen issue with the urgent dispatch it requires, thereby posing a serious security threat to the peace and unity of the nation. Painful to note is the fact that in the past one year, the nation has witnessed series of attacks and killings of innocent people as a result of the weird attitude of the herdsmen. The situation has become so terrifying that Nigerians keep wondering what could have come over these cattle rearers, that they now unleash grievous terror on their fellow Nigerians with sophisticated weapons, while nothing much is being done to tackle the issue.
Coming to the recent attack on Attakwu Community of Enugu State, and the misconception and sentiments being attached to it in the arena of public opinion, one is first compelled to frontally condemn the unfortunate incident as callous and barbaric. But the truth remains that the Enugu incident is not as grievous as the ones that occurred in other states of the country, yet people have not raised their eyebrows over how the affected state governors have addressed the issue.
It is on record that the recent report released by the United States government to its citizens traveling to Nigeria, named 20 unsafe states in the country and marked them as no-go-areas for the reason of “pockets of crimes being carried out by faceless persons that are hardly brought to book”. Enugu State was not in the list.
When one takes an inventory of how many people that have been killed and injured by the herdsmen in ravaged states such as Benue, Plateau, Kaduna, Delta, Imo, among others, it becomes obvious that Enugu does not deserve the negative comments it receives from cynics.
In Benue State for instance, the casualty rate of persons killed by suspected herdsmen between May 30 and June 20 this year, in Logo and Ukums local government areas alone, according reports is about 81 persons. Even though the Benue State Police Command said it witnessed 22 deaths, the number is still high compared to what was witnessed in Enugu State on the two occasions the herdsmen struck. The statistics are the same in other ravaged states.
The questions now are these: Why is the Enugu State issue different? What have the governors of these other states mentioned above done constitutionally to address the issues that the Enugu governor has not done? Under our lopsided federalism, does the power to direct the security agencies to crush the marauders rest squarely on the shoulders of the governors or the President and Commander-in- Chief of the Armed Forces? Do the people expect a governor who swore an oath of office not to take unlawful actions that could lead to bloodshed or jeopardize the unity of the country, to make inciting statements? Is it the responsibility of the state assembly to enact laws bordering on national issues such as grazing bill or is it the duty of the National Assembly?
These and other questions are indeed begging for answers, considering the fundamental rights of every citizen of the country as contained in our constitution.
One, therefore, takes exception to the falsehood being peddled by the likes of Amanze Obi in the Thursday, September 1, edition of his Broken Tongues in Daily Sun, where he alleged that the “Fulani herdsmen massacred an entire community” in Enugu State. Nothing could be farther from the truth – how could that be true?
I live and work in Enugu and to the best of my knowledge there is no record of an entire community being wiped out anywhere in the state. The state despite the unfortunate recent incident of the herdsmen has remained peaceful and is still rated as the least among the states ravaged by the herdsmen in the country. There is no doubt that the governor is working tirelessly with the security operatives to do all that are necessary and lawful to bring the culprits to book and end the menace of the marauders. This is evident in the recent arrest of a suspected herdsman in the state by the police for allegedly being in possession of a sophisticated AK47 riffle.
One appreciates the stance of the Enugu State students, who “lampooned” those inciting the students and youths of the state to stage reprisal attack on the Fulani herdsmen over the recent carnage in the state, particularly that such vengeance would be counter-productive and might lead to the endangering of lives of youths and students in the state. While condemning the attack in its entirety, they noted that the menace of the herdsmen was a national issue and requires the swift intervention of the federal government, which is constitutionally empowered to nip in the bud the atrocities of the marauders.
They reasoned wisely that “unlike in Ekiti State, the population of the Igbos living in the northern parts of the country is enormous, allaying fears that any unlawful action against the herdsmen in retaliation may likely put the Igbos in the north at the receiving end.”
On the call by some Igbo groups for the Enugu Governor to emulate Governor Ayo Fayose’s actions against the herdsmen, the students said that “no true Igbo leader would support any act that could lead to bloodshed or undermine the peace and unity of the country.” According to them, “Governor Ugwuanyi as a responsible leader believes in due process and constitutional means of addressing issues of this nature and should not be pushed to instigate the people of the state to take laws into their hands, as that is certainly not the best option under a democratic setting.”
Hence, the Enugu Students passionately “called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the security agencies to step up actions to put an end to the dastardly acts of the herdsmen in the overall interest of the country.”
In the same vein, the workers of the state through the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) shared similar views with the students, calling on the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to exercise his constitutional powers to ensure that the issue of the herdsmen was laid to rest. In their joint statement signed by the state chairman and secretary of the congress, Comrade Igbokwe Chukwuma Igbokwe and Comrade Benneth Asogwa, they also commended the Enugu Governor, “for his prompt visit to the ravaged community and the efforts he had put in place to maintain peace, protect the lives and property of the people of the state as well as ensure that the incident did not escalate.”
From the foregoing, it is clear that the menace of the herdsmen is a national issue and should be tackled holistically with the full support and cooperation of the federal government for a peaceful, united and prosperous nation – thereby sustaining the dreams of our founding fathers.
Chukwuma, a public affairs analyst writes from Enugu.
Oyo, Ogun farmers lament deadly encounters with herdsmen
Pains of wasted efforts, damp squib of raped women and chilling cries of men cut down in their primes are events that have left farmers in some Ogun and Oyo communities sad and forlorn. HANNAH OJO, who visited some of the affected communities ravaged by herdsmen invasion, reports.
MARIAM POPOOLA, a 65-year-old farmer in Ibeku, one of the villages in Iselu community, Yewa North Local Government Area of Ogun State, wept as she recalled the misery attacks Fulani herdsmen had foisted on inhabitants of the community. Some 500 herdsmen were using the Eggua border in the council area for grazing between December and April each year. Although they had been passing through the area for about two decades, friction between them and farmers in the community has been getting increasingly worse in the last 10 years.
According to her, it has become the habit of the herdsmen to rape women found to be alone on their farms while their cattle foul their sources of drinking water. “The herdsmen open up our barns while their cattle eat up the maize and cassava we keep in the barns. Even the planted ones are uprooted and trampled on in the process of grazing. If we ask questions, they draw their guns and shoot at us,” she said.
65 year old Mariam Popoola and other distressed members of the community
Such has been the plight of settled farmers in some South West communities, with the resultant tensions between them and Fulani pastoralists. The farmers accuse the herdsmen of damaging their crops because they fail to rein in their animals when they invade the farms. In worse case scenarios, they allege, the herdsmen are often involved in violent acts like rape, robbery and murder of residents of the host communities.
The herdsmen on their part say that they have no choice but to find pastures for their animals, arguing that they are the victims of unfounded prejudice. Local farmers say some villages including Asa, Agon-Ojodun, Ayetoro, Ogunpa, Kodera and Igbonla, are virtually deserted by their inhabitants.
Timothy Olasope, another Ibeku farmer, said his crops had been repeatedly destroyed in the last two years. He said the presence of Fulani herdsmen had left many of the remaining villagers so frightened that they keep themselves indoors in the evenings for fear of attack.
One attack too many
Violent acts of the herdsmen against the hapless inhabitants recorded by the various community leaders include the death of Yomi Alade, a teacher in the Area Community High School. He was killed in a fight with herdsmen on December 24, 2011. No arrest was made over the incident, much less a conviction.
Earlier, a female farmer, Ruth Oga, had died in a stand-off with herdsmen on her farmland at Asa village. A fellow villager was raped and killed as she tried to defend her farm from herdsmen. The bereaved father, who spoke with The Nation, expressed disappointment that no culprit had been brought to book since last year when the attack occurred.
A community leader Chief Samuel Edun, the Ashamu Apesin of Iselu, said he no longer believed the herdsmen were interested only in grazing their animals.
He said: “They don’t event eat grass anymore. They are after our farm crops. If they meet a couple in the farm, they will chain the husband and rape the wife in his presence. We tried to contain them but we are at our wits’ end. When God is ready, he will come and help us,” he said.
Oyo: A narrative of devastation and despair
Ayete, a sleepy town in Ibarapa North Local Government Area, Oyo State, bears a resemblance with that of Iselu people in Ogun State. As the generalissimo of Asawo, Ayete town, Chief Raheem Lawal Gbadegesin is, by tradition, the one that leads his town to war. But there appears to be a twist of role. He was caught in a clash with herdsmen on a cassava farm recently.
A prominent farmer in Oyo State said the herdsmen had caused a lot of havocs in the 10 local government areas in Oke-Ogun. Chief Amos Ajibesin, the chairman of All Farmers Associations, Oyo State, recounted a murder incident earlier in the year, which nearly resulted in a riot.
He said: “On February 18, this year, the pastoralists met a woman on the farm and beheaded her. I had to run there with the Commissioner of Police to avert crisis as the villagers were already set for a riot.”
There are about seven million Fulani people in Nigeria. While settled Fulani live permanently in towns and villages, many have kept itinerant lifestyle, moving with their livestocks from one part of the country to another. With the nation’s land resources depleted by development and desertification, there are often conflicts between these sedentary and pastoral communities.
Chief Rafiu Magbeje, a community leader in Afua, a village in Ayete town in Ibarapa North Local Government Area, Oyo State, accused the pastoralists of allowing their herds to invade their farmlands. He said the herdsmen often delegated the task of looking after their cattle to children who are unable to keep the animals on designated grazing paths.
“How can someone just place one man and some little children to look after 60 cows?” he wondered. “We have held meetings with their leaders to no avail. It has now got to the extent that our farmers can no longer get food to eat from their farms while the farmlands in Fulani settlements are booming.
“Our traders now buy cassava from Fulani people, which they usually buy from their farmers in the hamlets.
“Young farmers have been affected, as some of them who took loans from the bank have been sent into debt.”
Two-edged sword
Turaki Shehu Muhammad is the State Secretary of the Association of Fulani Chiefs of Nigeria, Ogun State chapter. He told The Nation that the current situation had made life difficult for farmers and the herdsmen alike.
“The government of the day has formed a committee in which Fulani people and the native farmers are represented. We have written a memorandum to the government of the day, telling them what to do. But knowing our political setting, it is the government that is delaying the implementation of these things. Really, it is both parties that are suffering. The Fulani community is suffering and the native community is suffering,” he said.
Yakubu Bello, the head of the Miyeti Allah association of Fulani herdsmen in Surulere, Oyo State, said that his group had met with farmers and begged them for an end to violence and reprisal attacks.
He added that the nomadic herdsmen were the ones who caused violence, insisting that there had always been a cordial relationship between the settled Fulanis and members of their host communities. He cited numerous intermarriages that have served in many instances to cement relationships.
Fulani leaders have called for grazing reserves to be set aside for their exclusive use, arguing that this would also help reduce friction with settled communities. Although there is such provision, it is far from being adequate for their needs.
All Farmers Association’s Ajibesin said they would not agree to the creation of a grazing reserve in Oyo State for herdsmen. He added that the association had written a proposal to the pastoralists to source readymade feeds for their cattle as is done by poultry farmers.
Some farmers are believed to have resorted to spraying chemicals on their farmlands or poisoning the streams where the herdsmen graze their cattle. Herdsmen have also threatened to sue any farmer on whose farm their cattle die.
Dele Raji is a farmer from Saki, one of the towns in Oke-Ogun area. He doubles as the chairman of the Oyo State chapter of the Maize Association of Nigeria. He said that herdsmen have no right to complain if their livestock fall ill while grazing on other people’s property.
“Is it the farm that went to meet the cow or the cow that went to meet the farm?” he asked. “That is our contention. Even if it is an open space, can an intruder just come into someone’s house without permission?”
Anger against the state
Farmers say that they have been betrayed by a police force incapable of protecting them from killer herdsmen. They complain that even when disputes are taken to the authorities, the compensation offered does not cover the cost of the farmlands destroyed. Raji said that farmers were often locked up unjustly while errant herdsmen, usually Fulani, brag about having the means to ‘take care’ of the police.
But the spokesman of the Oyo State Police Command, Adekunle Ajisebutu, said that any allegation of partiality in the matter was baseless.
He said: “We are a federal security organisation and we work according to the constitution. The constitution guarantees freedom of association and movement, and when there is crisis between one ethnic group and the other, you do not expect us to begin to support one ethnic group against the other.”
He added that the police had been trying to mediate, using alternative conflict resolution methods.
Asked about arrests, Ajisebutu responded: “I can’t give you the number of arrests we have made now. But I can tell you that we have effected some arrests as regard skirmishes and crises emanating from those places, and they have been arraigned in court. Whether they are Fulani or they are farmers, I don’t know.”
In Ogun State, the command’s spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said that local forces had always taken action and called stakeholders’ meetings involving both groups. The herdsmen say they carry guns to protect their cattle.
But Oyeyemi said that insinuations that the herdsmen are better armed than the police are untrue. He added that herdsmen have been warned not to carry arms. All they need, he said, are the traditional staff used to direct cattle while grazing.
“Once we get any such information, we act swiftly to prevent violence,” he said.
To scale back clashes between cattle herders and crop farmers, the Federal Government is
rehabilitating grazing reserves and stock routes and sensitising both sides on peaceful coexistence, reports VINCENT OHONBAMU in Gombe State
There has been enough violence and bloodshed between cattle herdsmen and crop farmers for federal authorities to come up with an answer. And the answer may have been found: rehabilitating all grazing reserves and stock routes, and orientating breeders and growers on the need for peaceful coexistence.
That is what the government has started doing, working through the Ministry of Agriculture in conjunction with Miyyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria.
The National Coordinator, Grazing Reserve Rehabilitation at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture Mr. Mahmud Ibrahim said the government has decided to rehabilitate the 414 grazing reserves and stock routes in the country. He was speaking during a sensitisation and mobilisation programme on the rehabilitation and development of the reserves and routes at Wawa Zange in Dukku Local Government Area of Gombe State.
He said government was determined to end the crisis between farmers and Fulani cattle breeders and would not rest until this was achieved.
Baba Usman Ngajarma, the National Secretary of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, said the tour was meant to sensitise nomads on such issues as the development of grazing reserves, demarcation of cattle routes, cattle rustling, kidnapping and peaceful coexistence with farmers, among others.
He said the sensitisation team would cover the country in phases, beginning with 10 states in each phase.
He added, saying, “We are going round the country to sensitise the nomads and the farmers on the need for them to co-exist peacefully because the two professions are created to coexist together. So is the need for them to coexist is very essential and necessary because it is natural that they coexist,” he posited.
On education, Ngajarma said they were also sensitising the Wawazange population and those in other grazing reserves on the need to allow their children go to school because the lack of modern education is one of the causes of crime among the youths; so also is moral decadence among the Fulani.
“Since we are collaborating with the National Commission for Nomadic Education, very soon we will still come out with the commission to sensitise the Fulani on the need for them to put their children in school,” he explained.
His assistance, Dr. Ibrahim Abdullahi, said security was paramount and called on residents to be watchful for suspicious persons, and report them to the authorities immediately. He also appealed for adequate security in the grazing reserve.
He said he saw a vehicle full of firewood, an indication of indiscriminate felling of trees in the reserve, insisting that such act would not be tolerated, especially now that the country and indeed the entire world is battling with the menace of desertification and desert encroachment.
This act, according to him, would not be possible without the collaboration of insiders in the reserve, hence the call on leaders in the Gombe State chapter of Miyyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria to come out in full force, liaise with security agents and the
state Ministry of Environment to put a stop the act immediately.
Three Fulani leaders in their different remarks pleaded for the provision of water for their animals and assured government of efforts to check the attitudes of their members in order to avoid clashes with farmers and communities.
Representatives of farmers on the hand complained of hot temper and hostility by some cattle breeders and called on them to desist from wanton destruction of their crops as some deliberately do and to report encroachment on routes to appropriately for appropriate action.
Dr. Abdullahi pleaded that they should ensure perpetrators were brought to book within the next one month, reminding them of the law which stipulates that ‘for every tree cut down, ten trees must be planted in their place.
Also speaking the state Commissioner of Animal Husbandry and Nomic Affairs, Mr. Sammy Barka urged the citizen of the state to desist from encroaching into grazing reserves and stock routes.
According to him, encroaching on grazing reserves and stock routes is causing disharmony and threatening our peaceful coexistence.
“I will like to appeal to the cattle breeders to control their animals and not to allow them destroy people’s farms and means of livelihood,” he said.
The sensitization exercise according to Ngajarma, the National Secretary of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria was supposed to have been flagged-off by President Buhari on July 4th, but was postponed to September and hoped that the President flag-off do a national the exercise by September.
Commenting however, Abare Abdu caste doubt on President Buhari’s commitment to end the farmers, herdsmen clashes, the rehabilitation of grazing reserves notwithstanding. He sighted the continuous silence of the President over the mayhem Fulani herdsmen are unleashing on
communities across the nation to prop-up his argument.
He opined that the problems between the two related oldest professions should rather be referred to as herdsmen massacre as the clash always end in their favour, especially now that they even brandish their rifles openly.
Elsewhere in the country, women and even men no longer go to farms alone. Women are constantly raped if found alone or outnumbered by the group of herdsmen who brandish riffles, swords and other weapons to subject their victims to the humiliation.
Men on the other hand get killed for trying to resist or protest grazing on their farms, while some are bound with ropes and made to watch their sweat destroyed by heartless herdsmen.
Ilorin, the Kwara State captal was agog for the maiden National Economic Youth Dialogue organised by the North Central caucus of the Nigerian Youth Parliament (NYP). The event was held at the state Banquet Hall.
Leader of NYP in the zone, Umar Etudaye, said the objective of the event was to raise awareness among the youths on the need to desist from crime and engage in agriculture and entrepreneurship.
Participants, including Corps members and students, discussed burning national issues, which borders on security and economic matters. They condemned the incessant clash between farmers and herdsmen, calling on the government to fast-track the proposed biometric capture of cattle owners to stop the bloodshed resulting from herdsmen and farmers’ clash in rural communities.
The youth also appealed to the Niger Delta Avengers to go on dialogue table with the government, saying blowing up the oil installations would only result in collective loss and pose great environmental challenges to the region.
They advocated for cooperation between the presidency and the National Assembly, saying the subtle crisis of confidence between the executive and legislature could erode the core values of democracy.
They unanimously endorsed the diversification of economy by the Federal Government, stressing that agriculture remained the solution to drive the needed economic revolution.
The youth resolved that Kogi, Benue, Niger and Kwara states should be engaged by the Federal Government for the take-off of its Agro-allied revolution, which will provide jobs for the youths in the region, and give them opportunity to acquire professional skills.
They said data collection of jobless youths to be trained in agro-business would start in October via online registration.
Etudaye hailed the chairman of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, for sponsoring training of youths for agro-allied business event and for his commitment to making the nation a business hub.
Speaking with CAMPUSLIFE, one of the organisers, Titilayo Yusuf, praised the participants for attending the summit, advising them to return to their communities and share the message with other youths.
Following recent invasion by herdsmen and alleged Police brutality, leader of a socio-cultural group, Network of Igala Associations (NIA), Ojile Ibrahim on Wednesday called on the Kogi State government to urgently intervene in lingering crisis in the state.
The group asked the state government to set up judicial panel of inquiry to investigate the remote cause of crisis, stressing that Igala community in the state was facing tough time due to increasing attacks and all forms of insecurity on the people.
According to Ibrahim, who visited The Nation office in Abuja, the invasion was caused by false allegation made by the herdsmen against Umomi community, claiming to have killed two cows belonging to the herdsmen.
His words: “Recently, the Fulani people made a false allegation on the people of Umomi community, that two of their cows were killed by the people. Mild trouble started over the allegation which the community termed it spurious, baseless and ploy for the Fulani to foment trouble in the area.
“In a heated argument, the Fulanis ran to the police to make complaint over the matter. A team of policemen were detailed to the scene of the trouble area with the hope of the community to address the matter amicably.
“However, to the surprise of the community, the police came and started using force for mass arrest which did not go down well with the people and riot broke out. People started running for their dear life and eventually two men were killed as a result of police shooting and brutality.”
However, Ibrahim called for timely intervention and alleged injustice meted at the people. “NIA is challenging the government of Kogi state through the attorney general and the commissioner of justice of Kogi state, to set up a high powered judicial panel of Inquiry to investigate the remote causes and bring to justice the perpetuators of the dastardly acts.
“In the same vein, the local government councils and the Kogi state government, should take proactive measure to nip in the bud, this act of terrorism by the Fulani’s before it degenerate into what looked like the cases of herdsmen attack at Agatu in Benue State, Part of Enugu states and other states, just to mention a few,” he added.
To end insecurity in Benue state, the Governor, Samuel Ortom, on Thursday said that his administration will apply the “stick approach” to solve the problem in the state.
Violent clashes between herdsmen and farmers have been very rampant in the state.
Speaking with State House correspondents after meeting with Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Ortom said that the approach is following the “carrot approach” that was introduced at the inception of his government.
His administration at the inception, he said introduced an amnesty programme designed as a carrot and stick approach to ending insecurity.
But he noted that the first approach succeeded to some level with some people surrendering their arms, while many others have returned to their old ways as they are not sincere.
Their insincerity, he said, has necessitated the use of force.
He said: “The carrot approach succeeded to some extent with may people surrendering arms. But some went back to their old ways because they are not sincere.
“We have now adopted the stick approach. All security agencies in the state must restore safety to the state.
“The state must be secured from robbers, kidnappers and assassins. We need to get rid of criminals from our society.
“We also intend to encourage investors and they will not come if the state is not secured.” He added
The governor disclosed that the state government has started receiving expression of interest to invest from Asia and Europe.
He pointed out that the government’s inability to pay salaries was still a problem as the state was still generating incomes not adequate to pay local government workers.
Noting that the nation has so far paid lip services to agriculture development, he commended the Federal Government’s new agriculture initiative.
He said that his administration’s decision to declare Fridays as public holidays is to allow civil servants embrace agriculture and has been yielding results.
“It is the right way to go. If we do not have money to do other things, we should have money to sustain ourselves,” he said.
He regretted the defeat of the Dream Team VI by Germany at the semi- finals of the Olympics men’s soccer event on Wednesday.
But he was optimistic that the team would do better next time.
He said that his government has commenced a sports programme aimed at catching the youth while still young.
“We have the talents, with little improvement of their skills, they will do us proud. We will do better next time,” the governor said.
According to him, he was at the State House to brief the Presidency of efforts being made to tackle the insecurity situation in the state.
Briefing the Presidency, he said was important so that the Federal Government would be aware of the efforts being made with a view to ensuring co-operation between the two arms of government.
Nothing prepares you for that kind of news. Nothing. Bedlam upon bedlam. Heart-wrenching tears and rage simply greeted the modern day war brought to our homestead. To my own blood.
For several years now, I had joined the loud campaign railing against the slaughter of innocent lives by Fulani herdsmen- from Plateau, and louder still when the marauders moved their sceptre of genocidal dance to my home state of Benue, leaving in their wake hundreds of innocent dead, including women and suckling infants, especially earlier this year. Then Enugu, then elsewhere… I had no idea that my family or any of its members would be their next target.
Friday, August 5, my elder brother, Obekpa James Onuh, same-father-same-mother as we put it in Nigeria, was macheted by two Fulani herdsmen during his visit to our village, Orokam in Benue State. He was riding on a motor bike and going on a visit to a cousin in a nearby village around Adupi, and was just leaving our village Ukalegwu, when two men he identified as middle-aged, gangling Fulani men (near one of their camps in the village), attacked him on the lonely path, one with a big stick, felled him from his bike and the other with a sharp machete, proceeded to hack at his neck as he lay struggling on the ground. He fended off several blows with his left hand and sustained deep cuts to his arm. But before he could make an escape to a nearby house, the machete man gave him a big blow to his forehead. How he managed to run to a nearby house, how he survived the profuse bleeding especially from several severed veins in his arm in a rickety village health centre till the next day and has held on to life in a hospital in Otukpo where he lives, has remained a miracle to us.
So, compatriots, so this is it (deep breath): we are no longer safe even in our ancestral homeland. Place of our peaceful childhood visits, play grounds, farmlands, innocent mischiefs and sacred land of our ancestors around which we have jealously nursed so many sweet reminiscences and visited from time to time. Fulani cattle-rearers have set up camps all across our small village after being sent away from the nearby Okpoga village after a series of murder and rape cases followed by incessant clash with locals. But my village as I know it since childhood is a sedate, laid-back land with locals who greet you quietly and smile from ear to ear. A poor, agrarian community sandwiched between Enugu and Kogi State and claimed by Benue, cocooned by a million and one palm trees, perennially short-changed by pot-bellied politicians and long forgotten by government, yet no one wants trouble.
But life sometimes is unfair, so, true to type, the herdsmen, on arrival, came with their baggage of trouble. Besides annexing ancestral lands with the connivance of a local chief, farmlands have been ravaged by their cows, our women have been raped and locals fear the Agatu ‘treatment’ (massacre) may befall them, so they hardly say ‘pim’. I now learnt some murders have occurred but many bury their unfortunate dead in silence, not wanting further trouble, until in recent times when the cattle rearers and the criminal elements among them appeared to have upped their murderous game, become emboldened and clearly stretched their hands beyond the tolerant limits of the fragile elbow. But clearly, no one knows what next to expect. Scary.
My brother’s case was obviously not a robbery incident: nothing was taken from him. The bike which belonged to the wife of another cousin was found the next day at the spot. It is a criminal gang bent on unleashing terror for reasons that absolutely beggars belief, leaving with you with several puzzles.
The security agencies? They are basically looking the other way. Though the case was reported at the local police post, no arrests have been made so far.
Dear compatriots, why are herdsmen allowed to bear arms (including AK-47, automatic rifles in daylight) and in clear violation of the laws of the land and after so many cases of murder of their hosts across the country?
Why has no one been arrested, tried and brought to book over the series of carnages across the country at least in the last one year? Why has the Presidency yet to issue a strong word of condemnation against these herdsmen for the heinous crime against humanity they commit across Nigeria?
Why does the presidency choose to be silent in the face of most of these attacks that have left hundreds dead in their wake in some instances but would offer profuse tear-soaked condolences to other countries after terrorist attacks on their citizens?
Why has the president ordered the Minister of Agriculture to go to governors, asking that ancestral lands be annexed to cattle rearers, when fellow Nigerians who are involved in similar private businesses like chicken, pigs, goats and rabbits rearing are not extended same privilege (meanwhile a bill on Grazing Rights that would also set aside special fund for the grazing reserves sits majestically in the National Assembly waiting to be passed to give legitimacy to it all)?
Why is the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, seat of Federal Government now being besieged by herds and herds of cows eating away at flowers and ornamental plants, disrupting traffic, threatening commuters’ safety and messing up every corner with their ‘expensive shit’ while all the enforcement agencies headquartered in the same city look shyly away? The same city which chased away hawkers and Okada riders to enforce and ensure the sanity deserving of capital cities?
I believe that President Buhari would be doing himself a lot of good, now and in the ever-hovering face of posterity, to rein in the cattle rearers and dispel these dangerous rumours and perceptions making round. He must put in every effort to dispel the general perception around his discriminatory treatment of his Fulani cattle rearer-kinsmen, run Nigeria like the secular, multi-ethnic state that it is. He must act, and must be seen to be president of ALL NIGERIA and not just of his Fulani rearer-kinsmen, or of the North alone.
These extremities, these impunities are eating away quietly and steadily at the very fabrics that hold us together as a nation. An eventual conflagration would do no one, including the President himself, any good.
The security of my peace-loving and soft-spoken teacher brother and indeed EVERY NIGERIAN is government’s preeminent duty as enshrined in our Constitution. It must be upheld. Nigerians and Nigeria must be safe!
The governor of Benue and indeed of all the governors have a duty to protect their citizens. Random condolence visits and endless donation of relief materials are not enough. These are avoidable human disasters, avoidable deaths. The world is watching this silly and soulless spectacle unfolding in Nigeria. Some of us may be canvassing for non-violent solutions but can’t say of the same for our restless youths who witness this carnage all the time. There is certainly a limit to all forms of provocation. All lives are precious, much more than cows.
I thank God for my brother’s survival. We have fears if he would ever be able to make full use of his left arm considering the level of injury but at least he is alive with us. If we his siblings and our parents are still in this deep shock, I can’t even imagine those who lost entire families in Agatu and several other communities across Benue, Enugu, Plateau, Adamawa and in several other states visited by these crazy fellows and in such gruesome and unprovoked manners.
