The Nation Newspaper

Tag: herdsmen

  • Herdsmen attacks: Jukun accuse Presidency, Arewa of silence

    The Jukun people in Taraba State have bemoaned what they called the “graveyard silence and inaction” of the presidency, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and Northern Governors’ Forum (NGF) over their plight in the Fulani herdsmen-farmers’ crises.

    The people, through the Jukun Development Association of Nigeria (JDAN), highlighted the atrocities being allegedly committed daily by Fulani herdsmen in Southern and Central Taraba State and much of the states in North central Nigeria, saying: “As we speak, hundreds of thousands of cows are occupying destroyed homes and farmlands across the region making sure that indigenous population never return to their homeland again.”

    At a press conference in Lagos which was addressed by the association President, Bako Benjamin, the Jukun people said despite all these, “We and the entire people of Jukun have waited patiently for strong words and actions from the presidency.

    “But the silence is becoming disturbing and dangerous, more disturbing is the graveyard silence of our  own Arewa Consultative Forum and Northern Governors Forum who have chosen to look the other way as fellow Northerners are been butchered and displaced from their ancestral homes and been replaced by new Fulani Herdsmen population.”

    Benjamin therefore stated that: “On behalf of the Jukun People all over the world and the traumatized Christian minority tribes in the North Central Nigeria, we call on the state and federal government of Nigeria to make a public pronouncement concerning these killings and displacements immediately to demonstrate concern and reassurance, otherwise the people of these regions will have no choice than to take drastic measures to defend themselves and protect their ancestral homes.

    “We once again call on the Taraba State and federal government to immediately send security agents to forcefully send packing all Fulani herdsmen illegally occupying farming communities and arrest the perpetrators of these genocides including village heads and their collaborators.”

    The association noted that another “disturbing aspect of this discriminatory bloodbath” is that the herdsmen always attribute “their wanton massacre to cattle rustling as the motives for the wanton killings, but facts point to Jigawa, Kebbi and Zamfara states as the headquarters of cattle rustling in Nigeria.

    “But curiously, Nigerians have never heard of any killing, burning of human beings, destruction of homes and farmlands and permanent armed occupation by Fulani herdsmen in farming communities in those areas,” JDAN stated, adding,

    “We want to make it abundantly clear to everyone today that this medieval-style territorial expansion and genocides in this 21st century is capable of triggering another round of Nigeria’s second civil war if not checked immediately by the authorities.

    President Muhammadu Buhari has reacted to the violence by directing the security agencies to take all necessary action to stop the carnage.

    Apart from condemning the killings, the president has also said that stopping the attacks is a priority, and that security agencies should bring the attackers to justice.

  • Herdsmen: IGP orders CPs to convene town hall meeting

    Herdsmen: IGP orders CPs to convene town hall meeting

    The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase has directed State Commands Commissioners of Police (CPs) and the FCT to immediately convene town hall meeting in their respective State Commands.

    The meeting is expected to address the misinformation, anxiety and animosity being generated in relation to the current security challenges associated with local communities and herdsmen.

    The IGP also directed all Assistant Inspectors-General of Police in charge of Zonal Commands (AIGs) to personally oversee the process in order to ensure urgent compliance.

    This is contained in a statement in Abuja yesterday by the Force Spokesperson, Olabisi Kolawole.

    The IGP who stated that the proposed meetings be held at State and Area Commands as well as at Divisional levels, explained that it will enhance the process of reassurance policing and need for peaceful coexistence and sensitivity of each community’s value, space and interest.

    The forum would have traditional rulers, community leaders, public officials, religious actors, youths bodies, local vigilante groups, women/market associations, Police Community Relations Committee, other sister security agencies, professional bodies, media, State and non-State actors as participants.

    While reassuring the public of the Force’ commitment to the safety and security of all Nigerians, Arase urged the citizen to put their differences aside and courageously continue to support the Police in the face of current security challenges confronting the country.

     

  • Governors take attack on pipelines, herdsmen’s menace to Buhari

    Governors take attack on pipelines, herdsmen’s menace to Buhari

    The five Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors in the South South geo-political zone yesterday resolved to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari over security issues in their area.

    The resurgence of attacks on pipelines in the region especially in Delta State and the menace of herdsmen, who have been attacking farmers, were condemned by the governors who said they would take the issues up with the President.

    They however did not state the time the meeting will hold at a briefing with reporters in Asaba after a meeting yesterday, attended by all of them.

    Host Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, who spoke to reporters, was joined by Governors Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom) Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa) and Ben Ayade (Cross Rivers).

    Okowa said the meeting also discussed how the PDP would do well in the Edo State governorship election. Edo is the only state controlled by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the zone and its governorship election is due in September.

    Okowa said: “We discussed issues concerning our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). You will recall that our convention has been fixed to hold in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on May 21 and we are putting plans in place for that convention.

    “The Chairman of the committee for the convention is Governor Wike of Rivers State and we use this medium to call on all our supporters and members of the PDP to desist from any form of crisis before, during and after the convention, we accepted as a party and the leadership of the party agreed that the national convention should hold at Port Harcourt. We stand by that resolution.

    ”We tried to map out strategies in order to strengthen the PDP in Edo State.”

    Asked about the strategies to take the state from the APC: Okowa said: “We will not let the cat out of the bag because we are putting things in place at the moment”.

  • Fayose, journalists and herdsmen

    Fayose, journalists and herdsmen

    GOVERNOR Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State does not have to make sense whenever he speaks, but he has contrived by his inimitable capacity for wrongdoing and melodrama to always make the news. His ideas, if they can be so described, do not have to reflect any thinking or effort, due to their spontaneity, but like the Giffen good, they push out finer and more brilliant ideas from newspaper front and inside pages. Is he capable of remorse? It is only someone who can reflect that has that capacity. Mr Fayose does not reflect, cannot entertain regret, and is so engrossed in causing offence on a gargantuan scale that he has no capacity to pause between one folly and another. Till he breathes his last, he will keep to this style, believing that it is rewarding and even enthralling.

    If the media had the capacity to black him out from the news, on account of his noxious views, they would not have invited him to their World Press Freedom Day activities organised by the Oyo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Ibadan last week. At the Dapo Aderogba Hall where the event held, the loquacious governor seized the moment to vent his spleen, complete with pettifogging details of his private philosophy, on anything and anyone that caught his fancy. Since the federal government dithered in taking firm and sensible measures to rein in the killing machine that some herdsmen had become, he gloated, he had instructed indigenes of his state to poison animal watering holes with special fungicidal preparations to harm cattle. The people had a right to defend themselves against predators, he roared.

    He did not indicate how the people would determine the criminal elements among the herdsmen. Indeed, it seemed to him, since the people could not discriminate the killers from the law-abiding cattle rearers, it was better to deter all of them.  His obtuse, and in many ways criminal, panacea would sadly resonate with some people, though they would be reluctant to implement that atrocious, horrendous and impracticable idea. Ekiti would certainly not be able to determine how the flow of poisoned water would be channeled for the specific consumption of herdsmen and to the exclusion of indigenous goats and rams.

    Mr Fayose’s asinine ideas are fuelled by the equally asinine fulminations of herdsmen who hubristically declared last week that no one could prevent them from grazing from the North to the South of Nigeria, or that if they were attacked, they would not muster the whole of Africa against the native attackers. The problem is worsened by the federal government’s own thoughtless perspective as exampled by their declaration that they needed some eighteen months to proffer solutions to the perennial clashes between farmers and herdsmen, many of whom are indigenous Fulani, perhaps aided by a few non-Nigerian Fulani. To cap a season of madness catalysed by sloppy governance, and regardless of the frequency of the herdsmen-farmers clashes and the mounting body count, the security agencies waited to be advised by the presidency to rein in the killers. It is such brazen and insufferable laxity that emboldens the likes of Mr Fayose and gives his strange views currency.

    But the Ekiti governor was not done. He was invited to make his contribution on the topic of press freedom, and did he go to town with stupefying ideas about who the ideal pressman should be and what the role of the press in a democracy must also be! Apart from the usual objectivity and independence expected to accompany media work, Mr Fayose suggests that the journalist must resist the seductions and blandishments of politicians, and chart a reasonable and reliable path for the society in its march to the future. He spoke well, surprisingly soaring to giddy heights of elocution and passion: “You are the last hope of the common man. When journalists support looters, there is confusion of vision. Journalists should shy away from it. Bad politicians should be brought to justice. Don’t write about issues you don’t know. Don’t rely on what a politician told you of his supposed enemy and don’t inherit his enemies. Journalists must help bring corrupt politicians to justice. When politicians are going wrong, let them feel the heat first from you.”

    All this came from a man whose iconoclastic, predatory and natural instinct is to disrespect and demolish everything around him, including media professionals, his betters, and great societal values. It is a miracle how it did not occur to him that everything he said about the media and journalists is a standard refutation of his private morality and a complete repudiation of his public persona. Well, the miracle is explained simply by the fact that Mr Fayose comes closest to the literary creation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: where the public sees dissonance or contradiction, Mr Fayose sees only the two faces of Janus to which he is neither averse nor displeased.

  • Calm after herdsmen storm

    Calm after herdsmen storm

    Cautiously, residents of Ukpabi Nimbo, Enugu State, return to their devastated community after suspected herdsmen’s attack. CHRIS OJI reports

    It has drawn blood, tears, anger, panic and exodus but after suspected herdsmen struck last week in Ukpabi Nimbo, Enugu State, a semblance of calm is returning to the community. There was armed police presence as residents who fled the attack cautiously made their way back to their devastated community.

    It was a tragic week. No fewer than 48 people were reported killed in the attack. The state governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi visited the community a day after the attack and was moved to tears at the scale of bloodshed and destruction.

    He also did his best to reassure the residents, even praying that God will protect them.

    Other leaders took their turn condemning the violence, some saying the people may have no choice but defend themselves if their attackers would not forbear while the authorities looked helplessly on.

    Economic activities and social activities have started picking up gradually, but farming, their mainstay of livelihood, was yet to resume as the fear of the herdsmen still hiding in the bushes remained strong.

    The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) dona-ted trailer-loads of relief materials to the community in Uzo-Uwani council area of the state.

    There have been other visitors since the attack.  Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu who was accompanied by the senator representing Enugu North zone, Chuka Utazi, as well as members of the House of Representatives including, Dr Chukwuemeka Ujam (Nkanu East/Nkanu West), Dennis Agbo (Igboeze North/Udenu), Pat Asadu (Nsukka/Igboeze South), Toby Okechukwu (Aninri/Awgu/Oji-River) and Dennis Amadi (Udi/Ezeagu) who visited the community at the weekend described the damage done to the community as devastating.

    They also visited the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu, where some of the injured are receiving treatment. The lawmakers expressed shock at the casualty figures.

    Ekweremadu announced his donation of a transformer to the community in addition to N2 million by the Enugu lawmakers in the National Assembly.

    “We are going to ensure that roads here are given clear attention,” said Ekweremadu. “After four years, the story of Uzo-Uwani will change. I will also give you a transformer within the next three to four days.”

    Both Hon. Patrick Asadu and Hon. Dennis Agbo representing Nsukka/Igbo-Eze South and Igbo-Eze North/Udenu federal constituencies, said “enough is enough”, maintaining that the attack on Nimbo would not be taken for granted.

    “They have been doing this and going scot-free but this attack on Nimbo will be the last. The people doing this are not just cattle rearers; they are terrorists, Boko Haram elements; we are not going to take it,” said Asadu.

    The Parish Priest of St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Nimbo, the Rev. Fr. Okeke Obetta, had told the delegation how some of the herdsmen numbering over 50 descended on the church and vandalised it after several attempts to set it ablaze failed. He said while the carnage was going on, there were 14 parishioners in the chapel praying. One of them out of fear attempted to escape and was felled by the herdsmen’s bullet.

    “There were three generator sets in the church. But they were all empty without fuel. The herdsmen turned them upside down and shot them with their rifles with the intention to set the church ablaze. But the generators miraculously did not catch fire,” the man of God narrated.

    The traditional ruler of Nimbo community, Igwe John Akor, a former senior editor with the rested Concord newspaper,  made a passionate appeal to the federal government to address the security challenge facing his people, noting that the continued loss of lives and property in the hands of the herdsmen would no longer be condoned.

    “There is no single day that passes without one skirmish with the Fulani herdsmen. They are taking too much. A lasting solution to their impunity should be found. Otherwise our people will continue to sleep with one eye open,” Igwe Akor stressed.

    Director-General of NEMA, Alhaji Mohammad Sani Sidi  sympathised with the people, saying also that the federal government shared their grief and pain.

    Sidi, represented by the Southeast coordinator of NEMA, Mr. Martin Udeinya, described it as a barbaric act.

    He said, “We are here today to present relief materials to Nimbo community after carrying out a comprehensive assessment of the damage done to the area recently. These items will help to cushion the extent of the damage in the community.”

  • Herdsmen attacks: Solidarity from across borders

    Herdsmen attacks: Solidarity from across borders

    The lawmaker representing Afikpo Northeast constituency in Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Hon Maria Nwachi has visited two hospitals in Enugu State to donate relief materials to victims of the recent herdsmen attacks in Uzo Uwani.

    The lawmaker who raised money for the visit through her facebook group page, described the attacks as abominable.

    Hon Nwachi and some members of the group first visited a hospital in Nsukka where they met one victim while the rest have been transferred to the orthopaedic hospital in Enugu.

    The group after donating to the patient, proceeded to Orthopaedic Hospital where they also donated items and cash to the victims.

    During the visit, The Nation learnt that attacks by Fulani herdsmen have been going on in Enugu State long before the recent massacre in Uzo Uwani community.

    It was learnt that many isolated cases had been recorded in the state though the attacks were on a few people at a time.

    More surprising is the fact that some of the attacks took place in the day time as against previous attacks which occurred at night.

    One of the victims, Nwobodo Onyeka, who narrated his ordeal, said he was attacked by three herdsmen at Amoji Nike on April 9 two weeks before the Uzo Uwani attacks.

    He said he had gone to the area to survey a land he wanted to buy when the herdsmen attacked them accusing them of killing their cows.

    He said, “We took a car and got to a particular place and took a cab. My younger sister, her friend, the agent who is also a female and myself after surveying the land, were now coming out when the three of the herdsmen came out from the bush with guns.

    ”One of them shot at us and the bullet hit my hand, the bullet went out and entered into the other woman’s belly. Some particles also hit my sister’s friend in her eyes.

    Then they started saying, “Sebi na una dey kill our cows abi, we go kill una today for this land”, meaning you are the people killing our cows, we will kill you today on this land”.

    Reacting, the lawmaker wondered why non-governmental organisations and humanitarian agencies have abandoned the victims.

    She said; “The mayhem, the wanton killing, the gratuitous violence, visited on a people in their land is unheard of, abominable and calamitous”.

    “If this were the civilized world, you would see so many charity organizations falling on top of each other to help the victims, financially and otherwise, but here nothing, you are on your own”.

    “I appeal to government, NGO, humanitarian agencies and individuals to please not abandon victims of this herdsmen mayhem to fend for themselves”.

    “Please, visit them in hospitals and take care of their hospital bills, they cannot be put through this for no fault of their own and then be saddled with how to pay their hospital bills or to get themselves out of the hospital”.

    “Some of the victims, the ones that were conscious, were so happy despite their pain, they felt, people cared. The unconscious ones just looked on, as we consoled them and dropped off their goodies”.

  • Governors, lawmakers and Fulani herdsmen

    Last week on these pages, we talked about Yoruba governors who wear Awo’s cap without imbibing Awo’s character and philosophy. I think they have their parallel all over the country especially in the north where Ahamadu Bello, Awo’s contemporary, with an annual budget of 44m pounds, lower than what each of the 414 LGAs in the north today collects as allocation, according Nuhu Ribadu, “maintained law and order and ensured effective security of life and property, built Ahmadu Bello University, Ahmadu Bello Stadium, NNDC, the largest black-owned conglomerate in black Africa;  built many textile factories, good roads, marketing boards, efficient water supply etc” while the 19 northern  governors sadly  have nothing to show for the N8.3 trillion they  got from the federation account between 1999 and 2010″.

    While Awo and Bello as Premiers, stayed  at home,  studied and proffered solutions to the problems of their people, many of today’s imperial governors spend more time in Dubai, Britain, US, Jerusalem and Saudi Arabia purportedly sourcing for investors or shamelessly using taxpayer money to fulfill their religious obligations. Some even chose South American islands as their own destination. But we now know from the Panama papers that some governors use some of the Islands as safe havens to avoid payment of taxes on alleged stolen state allocations badly needed to checkmate the menace of Fulani herdsmen that have turned part of the Middle Belt into a killing field in the last seven years.

    Unfortunately, northern governors and their lawmakers believe the federal government is the answer to all their problems. This is probably the only reason why 19 northern governors whose major reason for being in government is the protection of life and properties, will last week disingenuously claim the Fulani herdsmen problem have to be resolved by the federal government. Speaking on behalf of Northern Governors Forum, Kashim Shetima, their chairman insisted ‘the crisis goes beyond Fulani herdsmen and as such, the country must collectively work towards a solution’. He did not forget to introduce an odious comparison between Fulani herdsmen’s atrocities and kidnapping in the South-east  without making a distinction between the target of the latter which are  Igbo victims of the tyranny of their own leaders who made fortunes by bargaining in their names and the target of the former who are victims of state tyranny with an unjust land allocation Act which has reduced them to subsistence farmers in small parcels of land not yet confiscated by government to satisfy the rich.

    Now the patrons of Fulani herdsmen, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Associations speaking through Nuru Abdullahi and Ardo Ahmadu Suleiman, their leaders in Plateau and North West Zone arrogantly say the federal constitution which allows land to be taken from the poor for the use of the rich, gives them access to any land in Nigeria. To show there is unanimity of thoughts on the issue by northern politicians, Hon Sadiq Ibrahim (Adamawa APC) on April 13 sponsored the National Grazing Routes and Reserve Bill which seeks the establishment of a commission to control and manage grazing routes and reserves in all parts of the country. The commission will be expected to undertake a physical/geographical analysis of land use in each state in order to ascertain the best and most appropriate place to locate the federal government reserve and route within the state.

    Defending the bill during a Channels TV programme, Sadiq warned of the consequences of not passing the bill which include but not limited to the possibility of northern farmers driven by search for water overrunning the south in a matter of decades.  He forecloses the possibility of the north taking its fate in its own hands even after pointing out that Saudi Arabia a desert nation, has the largest cattle ranch in the world.

    Sadiq also attributed the mindless killing of farmers and armless children and women by AK47-wielding Fulani herdsmen to the fact that  most children sent out of their homes as early as their ninth birthday to herd cattle not necessarily owned by commercial cattle farmers but by uncles and cousins spend their formative years bonding, not with man but animals.

    The fundamental question to ask northern governors and their federal lawmakers, beneficiaries of the foresight of Ahmadu Bello who 60 years ago went round towns and villages of northern cities selecting underprivileged children including President Buhari for schools, is why they have not seen it as a challenge to end the lives of misery of nine-year-olds hijacked from their poor parents and forced to spend the most critical formative years  in the bush looking after cows owned according to Sadiq by ‘uncles and cousins’, who most certainly have their own children in the best schools in and outside the country?

    Shetima’s Borno State before the outbreak of Boko Haram insurgency had only about 30% of children of school age in schools. It was not markedly different in many parts of the north where when nine year olds are not uprooted from their families to spend the rest of their lives in the bush, they are roaming the streets of northern cities as almajiris. Until the bold step taken by the former Kano State governor to provide an alternative choice to Kano street urchins and the introduction of ex President Jonathan’s nomadic schools, we have no records of efforts made by other northern governors to stop labourers siring labourers.

    But the northern governors don’t have to look far to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and Israel where desert regions produce enough food to feed themselves and parts of Europe. Many of the governors who are now in APC should ask Tinubu, Fashola and even newly elected Ambode how they have been able to manage the peculiar problems of their state without federal government support.

    While the northern governors exploited the defective federal constitution to unfairly corner more LGAs and more federal allocations, Lagos State went on to create more Council Areas. The state in spite of a vindictive federal government creatively increased its IGR from pre- 1999 N600m to about N16b. The state set up LASTMA to tackle the traffic gridlock associated with urban centres in spite of a vindictive federal government that set up a parallel body made up of political thugs to confront Lagos State officials on federal roads. The state was the first to set up an Independent Power Plant. The pilot scheme took three years instead of three months because of a vindictive federal government fearing ‘Lagos might become like London”. Lagos State wanted state police to address peculiar urban problems as obtained in all federations in the world. The 19 northern governors that equally needed state police to address their own peculiar challenges of porous borders joined the federal government to kill the initiative. Lagos State did not give up. It went on to creatively make use of the same Nigeria Police to tackle the problems of violent crimes in the state. Fashola started the miracle of Oshodi; Ambode has completed it. Today, if you are caught loitering in Oshodi, you will be picked up by the police. And finally to ensure food security as well as prevent jobless immigrants taking on to crime, Ambode went to Osun State to lease land for agriculture. Two weeks back, he signed a Memorandumý of Understanding to establish a commodity value chain that will boost food processing, production, and distribution with Kebbi State.

    The 19 northern governors who are busy passing the buck, their lawmakers who are sponsoring bills to shift their responsibilities to others, and Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Associations who are threatening to unleash armed Fulani herdsmen on poor farmers must be reminded that in a federation, states have the constitutional duty of defending their citizens. And states who like Lagos cannot creatively do that through LASTMA or the police are at liberty to employ the services of vigilante groups because states exist primarily to protect lives and properties of their citizens.

  • Herdsmen: Northern Senators warn against provocative statements

    Senators of Northern Nigeria Wednesday warned against provocative statements that could inflame tempers in the country in the light of the killings by herdsmen in Nimbo, Uzo-Uwani, Enugu State.

    They also said that the categorization of all herdsmen as Fulani is wrong and should be stopped.

    The Senators under the aegis of Northern Senators Forum, said that they “note and appreciate the steps that the Federal Government has taken so far to contain the problems of herdsmen/farmers clashes.”

    They specifically asked community leaders (including governors) “to be careful when making statements on these ugly incidences.”

    Chairman of the Forum, Senator Abdullahi Adamu who read the communiqué of the lawmakers said that they “resolved to continue their complete support for President Muhammadu Buhari in order to bring about even development to all sections of the country.”

    Adamu said that members of the Forum further resolved to work assiduously to enact laws and amend existing ones when and where necessary in order to promote the interest of Northern Nigeria in particular and Nigeria in general.

    He added that they noted specially the steps taken by the government to wipe out incidences of insurgency and are hopeful that in no distant time, “we shall say bye-bye to the problem of insurgency.”

    On tagging every Fulani herdsmen, Adamu said, “We have tried to kill the idea that every herdsman is Fulani. I am a farmer but I am not Fulani by birth. It is very very wrong to say that everybody you find with a cow is Fulani.”

    Adamu noted that when Chief Olu Falae was kidnapped the news went round that the kidnappers were Fulani.

    He said that when those responsible for kidnapping the elder statesman were eventually arrested, it was discovered that they were not Fulani.

    Adamu noted that when he travelled to the western part of the country, he saw a lot of Yoruba cattle rearers.

    He insisted that a cattle rearing is no longer the exclusive preserve of the Fulani.

    On inflammatory, he said that some groups in the South East have said that the Fulani should leave their part of the country, “if people from the North say the same thing of people from the south East, we wonder where it will lead the country.”

     

  • I’ve ordered security agencies to deal with rampaging herdsmen – Buhari

    I’ve ordered security agencies to deal with rampaging herdsmen – Buhari

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday night restated his administration’s resolve to  deal decisively and expeditiously with continued attacks on communities across the country by armed herdsmen.

    He spoke at a meeting with members of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), at the State House, Abuja.

    President Buhari confirmed that heads of national security agencies have been ordered to take all necessary action to apprehend and expose those behind the heinous attacks.

    Buhari, in a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, said: “We are determined to secure all Nigerians and I have told the Inspector-General of Police and other security agencies, in very strong terms, to deal decisively with the attackers.”

    He expressed his personal condolences to the Catholic Bishop of Enugu, the people of Ukpabi Nimbo and all other communities that have suffered fatalities and other losses from the recent attacks.

    Speaking on other national issues, the President assured the Bishops that he was acting with deliberation and moving methodically to implement his change agenda for the good of the country.

    He said: “We need to rebuild our institutions methodically, we need to change the way we do things.

    “In the last 10 years, crude oil sold for more that $100 per barrel, but Nigeria did not save.  That is why we have found ourselves where we are today,” President Buhari told the Catholic Bishops, led by Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama, the Archbishop of Jos.

    The President also assured them that his administration was working very hard to fulfill all the promises it had made to Nigerians, adding that his greatest motivating factor now is the desire to bring positive change to Nigeria.

    On behalf of the bishops, Most Rev. Kaigama expressed the solidarity of the CBCN with the President.

    “We are willing to collaborate with you and with your administration, in which we see hope for a greater Nigeria,” he told the President.

    The bishops pledged continued prayers for Nigeria and the government, expressing their conviction that current hardships are temporary, and Nigeria will soon overcome its present difficulties.

  • Curtailing herdsmen’s menace

    Curtailing herdsmen’s menace

    Herdsmen have been killing people across the country. Opinions are divided on the way out. Some have suggested a National Grazing Bill to solve the problem. But, Oyo  State Governor Abiola Ajimobi and others, including lawyers, have opposed the bill because it is against the Land Use Act. JOSEPH JIBUEZE writes. 

    From their simple nomadic life, they seem to have transformed to killers. Herdsmen kill, maim, torch and loot communities. The latest of such attacks was their invasion last Monday of the Ukpabi-Nimbo community in Enugu State. Forty-eight persons were killed, 56 others injured and 60 houses torched.

    The nation was outraged by the incident. Many blamed the government for what they described as its lukewarm approach to the issue. They accused President Muhammadu Buhari of keeping mum in the face of the herdsmen’s threat to national security. What is the way out?

     

    Grazing Bill

     

    Some have suggested that a grazing Bill will address the menace. It proposes the creation of grazing reserves accross the country for herdsmen. The Senate has denied that such bill is before it. But the bill is before the House of Representatives, which moved to consolidate two similar bills.

    The first is a Bill for an Act to establish the National Grazing Route and Reserve Commission. The Bill provides that the commission will establish and control Grazing Routes and Reserves in all parts of Nigeria. It is said to be sponsored by Karimi Steve Sunday, PDP, Yagba East/Yagba West/Mopamuro Federal Constituency, Kogi State.

    The second is a Bill for an Act to create a Department of Cattle Ranches under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture or any such Ministry overseeing the production and rearing of cattle. It was reportedly sponsored by Dickson Tarkighir (Makurdi/Guma Federal Consti-tuency, Benue State).

    According to a notice paper of the House of Representatives for the week March 14 to March 18, consolidation of both bills was scheduled for March 15.

    The Grazing Bill designates some land as possible National Grazing Reserves and Stock Routes, such as land at the disposal of the Federal Government; any land in respect of which it appears to the commission that grazing on such land should be practiced, and any land acquired by the commission through purchase, assignment, gift or otherwise howsoever.

    The bill also provides that the commission shall pay compensation on any land acquired; it has power to negotiate with holders of statutory or customary rights of occupancy for the purpose of assignment of land to the commission.

    The commission may take over the ownership, control and management of any existing grazing reserve and stock routes from any state on agreed terms with the state concerned.

    The bill says the commission shall pay compensation on any land it acquires, while any disputes over claim for compensation shall be referred to the Land Use Allocation Committee of the state concerned.

    Sections 20, 21, and 22 of the bill, empowers the grazing commission to only give notice to a governor of a state whose land is intended to be acquired, among others.

     

    Bill rejected

     

    The bill has been criticised for having no provision for the governor’s consent. Oyo State governor Abiola Ajimobi, has warned against any proposal to seize or allocate land across Nigeria for use as grazing reserves.

    To him, such plan would be ill-advised and against the spirit of overriding public interest, and would not be allowed in his state.

    “This is the time to call a spade a spade,” Ajimobi said at the launch of “AgricOyo”, the state’s agriculture initiative. “Those clamouring for creation of grazing zones across the country should have a rethink. It is against the Land Use Act; it is against the law of natural justice to seize people’s land to cater for someone’s cattle.

    “Grazing zones could be created for those who are traditional cattle rearers in their areas. I’m not against that. But, you cannot come here and tell me you want to occupy our land for grazing zones. The land exists in our respective states and as such the rightful owners should decide what to do with them.

    “Anybody outside this zone willing to rear cattle here will need to approach the state to buy the land and we offer what is available with rules. There is no free land for grazing zones. We need to take this firm position. It won’t happen.”

    A lawyer, Clement Udegbe, said: “Consent of the state concerned ought to be obtained to avoid conflicts, disputes and trouble. Consent should be in a written form with the signatures of the community heads, traditional rulers, the House of Assembly, and the governor.

    “An aggrieved community must have the right to seek redress in court. Any law like this bill that seeks dexterously to kill or muffle the right of redress in court is unconstitutional, and must not be allowed. The omission of consent from ancestral or traditional land owners betrays the manipulative intentions of this bill.”

    A Lagos lawyer, Ucheakolam Adim, said: “A bill that empowers a commission to take away any land it deems fit for the purpose of grazing reserves or stock routes is obviously not protecting any individual because every individual in Nigeria would then live in the fear of their land being taken away.

    “It suffices to say that this bill seeks to create an unchallengeable leviathan. The bill also provides that compensation would be given to any individual whose land is taken away by the commission. However, the bill fails to define the compensation payable and what would suffice as a reasonable compensation in any circumstance,” she said.

     

    Olanipekun, Ofuokwu suggest way out

     

    Analysts say the herdsmen’s attacks bring to the fore the futility of continuing with the current policing system. They say it offers a compelling reason for state police.

    Some have suggested military action, as the danger posed by the herdsmen seems to have assumed terrorist proportions.

    Former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) President, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) said the National Grazing Bill is not the solution.

    “Initiation of a bill establishing a National Grazing Reserve and Development Commission in a supposed federal system of government like Nigeria, is uncalled for and should not even be toyed with for several reasons.

    “Nigeria is not a unitary state, although unitarism is being foisted on us and we are unfortunately acquiescing. Such a bill would be unconstitutional and illegal, as well as unreasonable and provocative.

    “Section 1 of the Land Use Act vests all land within the territory of a state in the governor of the state and not in the President.

    “The contents of the bill appear to me, to be a direct call on the herdsmen to invade and conquer everywhere/state where the grazing reserve passes through and, by extension, all the states of the federation,” Olanipekun said.

    Besides, he said, the bill is “one-sided” as it does not provide requisite punishment for any herdsman who trespasses from the designated reserve routes to another person’s land or house.

    “The bill only punishes the ‘landlords’ and leaves the ‘tenants’ unchecked. The bill cannot be a solution to the random killings, rape, abduction and violent crimes presently associated with herdsmen who are armed with AK-47 rifles while tending their flock.

    “If the government is minded to push such a bill through, by parity of reasoning and logic, then it must also create, by statutory fiat, a similar canopy of corresponding routes for the average cocoa farmers in some states to transport, warehouse and market their cocoa products across Nigeria.

    “The statutory cover should also extend to every other profession, trade and vocation. On a serious note, introduction of such a bill is outrightly ill-advised and ill-conceived.

    “The Federal Government should muster courage to decisively deal with any herdsman who goes on rampage to kill, maim, capture, rape and destroy,” Olanipekun said.

    A constitutional lawyer, Ike Ofuokwu, believes the bill, if passed, will exacerbate rather than solve the problem.

    “The proposed National Grazing Reserve Bill, to me is simply irresponsible and a calculated and deliberate attempt to legalise economic criminality of grabbing someone’s land to cater for the economic and business interest of another, that is to say robbing Peter to pay Paul.

    “The proposed bill, if allowed to scale through, would be a recipe for violence and civil disorder which will do this country no good. More so, it will run contrary to the spirit and intent of the Land Use Act and the customary means of land holding,” he said.

    According to him, the herdsmen are private business men, adding that if they desired a grazing reserve anywhere, they should pool resources to acquire land for it from any community or persons willing to sell land. Ofuokwu said it should not be a national issue.

    “The question that we need to ask is why, all of a sudden, this hitherto peaceful nomadic people, who over the years go about doing their cattle businesses without any molestation and were never hostile to their host communities, decided to jettison their traditional sticks, cutlasses, bows and arrows for the modern AK47 rifles?”

    Ofuokwu expects the government to go tough on the killer-herdsmen. “What was done to those that carried out the genocide in Agatu and other communities before the Enugu massacre? Could this be Boko Haram disguising as herdsmen?

    “Permit me to say that they have sponsors who acquire these arms for them and who own the cattle. So, even if they were given the grazing reserves, it will not take away the AK47 from them.

    “Hence, we need to disarm them first. Failure to do so could put this country in disarray,” he said.

     

    Will the attacks end?

     

    For years, suspected Fulani herdsmen have been in the news for the wrong reasons. In February, 10 Agatu communities were razed and hundreds reportedly massacred by suspected Fulani herdsmen. Former Senate president David Mark’s convoy was ambushed in Agatu when he went to assess what he described as genocide.

    Herdsmen’s attacks did not start today. Reports say 30 people were killed in Galadima Village and another 200  in Zamfara State last April. Ninety-seven persons were reportedly killed last June in Motokun Village in Patigi Local Government Area of Kwara State and in Ninji and Ropp villages in Plateau State.

    Last September, three persons were said to have been killed in Ndokwa West in Delta State.  A middle-aged woman was raped and killed in Edo State. Last November, 22 men and women were reportedly killed in Ojeh in Dekina, Kogi State.

    On April 9, Fulani herdsmen and youths clashed in Edo. It was gathered the youths were on a revenge attack following the killing of a 64-year- old farmer, Alex Idemitin, whose neck was sliced.

    Last November 8, Fulani herdsmen allegedly killed Chinwuba Ekwueme in Egede in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State. Chairman of the Egede Neighbourhood Watch Mr. Donatus Otie said Ekwueme died from gunshot wounds after herdsmen fired at his group.

    On January 24, the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Vunokilang Police Station in Girei Local Government Area of Adamawa State was among 30 people killed in an attack by suspected Fulani herdsmen on a Sunday morning.

     

    Our cattle were attacked

     

    From a group of stick-wielding pastoralists, living essentially a nomadic life, the Fulani herdsmen have transformed into an arms-bearing fighting force, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.

    According to the 2015 Global Terrorism Index, which classifies the herdsmen as a militants, only Iraq and Afghanistan suffered worse terror attacks than Nigeria in 2014.

    Of the 20 deadliest terror attacks globally in 2014, nine occurred in Nigeria, with Boko Haram, which overtook the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria as the deadliest terror group, taking credit for eight.

    The ninth, an attack in Galadima, which claimed over 200 lives, was attributed to Fulani herdsmen. While Boko Haram attacks claimed 6,644 lives, Fulani herdsmen, named as the fourth deadliest in the world, were responsible for 1,229 lives, the report said.

    The Army is said to be holding 92 Fulani herdsmen arrested with arms at a military checkpoint between the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and Nasarawa State.

    Assistant Director, Army Public Relations of the Guards Brigade Capt. Bashir Jajira said 36 of the suspects claimed that they were on a mission to recover their stolen cows.

    He said the 56 others were arrested by the soldiers at a military checkpoint at Dantata on the Abuja Airport Road.

    He said the troops recovered “one pump action gun, 19 cartridge dane guns, 118 cartridge ammo, 28 cutlasses, three jack knives, 14 sticks, seven torch lights, certificate of occupancy, assorted charms and hard drugs.”

    The Fulani community in Benue accused Agatu natives of killing 10,000 cattle belonging to its members.

    Ado Boderi, a Fulani community leader, during a meeting involving Agatu community, Fulani community and Inspector-General of Police Solomon Arase, said criminal elements from both sides escalated the crisis. He described Fulani herdsmen as peace-loving people whose main concern was the problem of cattle rustling.

    Prior to last Monday’s attack in the Enugu community, some criticised President Muhammadu Buhari for not condemning the herdsmen activities. But, last Wednesday, he vowed that his administration would continue to ensure the safety of Nigerians in all parts of the country.

    President Buhari, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said: “The armed forces and police have clear instructions to take all necessary action to stop the carnage.”

     

    Can the police cope?

     

    Arase said the 305,000 -strong police is not enough to guarantee security to the country.

    The IGP, while delivering a lecture at the University of Jos (UNIJOS), said policing in Nigeria is particularly difficult because of inadequate logistic and resources (especially transportation, telecommunication, arms and ammunition and accommodation).

    “The challenges notwithstanding, citizens also have a responsibility towards the police. The police will be ineffective if the citizens constantly disrespect, distrust, assault, insult and antagonise the police. Chapter 2 of the Constitution obliges citizens to assist the law enforcement agencies as civic responsibility. Unfortunately, most citizens are either unaware of this obligation or chose to ignore it,” he said.

     

    Prosecute suspects

     

    The Senate has raised a six-man ad-hoc panel to conduct a public hearing this week on the killings by herdsmen. The decision was taken after debate on last Monday’s killings in the Enugu community. They also called for the prosecution of suspects.

    Nobel laureate Prof Wole Soyinka also lashed out at the presidency for its seeming inability to rein in herdsmen.

    His words: “I have yet to hear this government articulate a firm policy of non-tolerance for the serial massacres that have become the nation’s identification stamp.

    “I have not heard an order given that any cattle herders caught with sophisticated firearms be instantly disarmed, arrested, placed on trial, and his cattle confiscated. The nation is treated to an 18-month optimistic plan which, to make matters worse, smacks of abject appeasement and encouragement of violence on innocents.

    “Let me repeat, and of course I only ask to be corrected if wrong: I have yet to encounter a terse, rigorous, soldierly and uncompromising language from this leadership, one that threatens a response to this unconscionable blood-letting that would make even Boko Haram repudiate its founding clerics.”