It was a black week for the Fulani in Gembu, Sardauna Local Government Area of Taraba State.
An estimated 200 Fulani – men, women and children – have been reportedly killed, and many others injured, as the Mambilla community turned against their Fulani neighbours, whose militants, incidentally, had been terrorising and killing innocent rural farmers in recent times.
Governor Darius Ishaku said “a lie’ caused the violence.
About 20,000 cows, according to Senator Yusuf Yusuf (Taraba central), were killed and over 5,000 homes burnt while property, estimated to cost millions of naira, were looted or destroyed.
All these happened after four days of hostilities.
Those who managed to escape, some with injuries, have been kept in a secluded place as IDPs to shield them from further attacks.
Sources said there are no adequate medical facilities to treat them.
The Nation gathered that many people were killed in Nguroje (where the crisis started), Sabbal Gudali, Toffi, Mayo Daga, Mayo Sina, Tamiya, Kwara-Kwara, Tungan Lugere and Timjire. 10 people were killed in a Mosque in Wuro Ardo Musa, during prayer.
A headmaster, his wife and seven children were reportedly wiped out.
Languishing in agony, the victims describe the violence as “a well-organised ethnic cleansing against the Fulani in Sardauna, supported by some top government officials.”
Acting President Yemi Osinbajo ordered the deployment of soldiers in the state to halt the violence. He ordered police reinforcement, deployment of extra military battalion and personnel of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in the area after the crisis.
Osinbajo commiserated with the affected communities and the state, and ordered the provision and delivery of relief materials to them. He also imposed a dusk to dawn curfew, with soldiers now patrolling the length and breadth of the area to maintain law and order.
Security chiefs have temporarily relocated to the area to stop further killings.
The General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 3 Division of the Army, Brig-Gen. Benjamin Ahanotu; Commandant of the 23 Brigade, Yola, Adamawa State Brig-Gen. Bello Mohammed; Commandant of the 20 Battalion in Serti, Lt.-Col. Abdullahi Anwar and the Commissioner of Police Yunana Babas, have temporarily relocated to the area.
Governor Ishaku has set up three committees to end the skirmishes. The first, raised at the beginning of the crisis, is headed by Deputy Governor Haruna Manu.
Another 14-member committee is headed by the Chief of Mambilla. It has five members each from Fulani and Mambilla, one representative each from Kaka, Kambu, Panso and Igbo, whom the governor said have lived there for many years and will tell the truth if the indigenes refuse to do so.
The third is the “Truth and Reconciliatory Committee” made up of religious leaders (Christians and Muslims). The committees are to chart the need to forgive one another and forge ahead.
“I spoke with the Acting President on the intelligence and the cause of the crisis was a lie,” he said.
Journalists stopped from visiting horrifying scenes
Scenes of the carnage are so horrifying soldiers stopped reporters from visiting them. Gen. Ahanotu accompanied reporters to the scene but after seeing the horrific devastation on a motorbike, he stopped them (reporters) from gong further. The trip ended in Bang.
Ahanotu simply told the reporters their reports may alter his investigation.
“I was shocked with what I saw. Even Boko Haram did not slaughter women and children, but here, I have seen young children and pregnant women slaughtered because of hatred,” he noted.
In Gembu, he told the Chief of Mambilla Shehu Baju that “the Fulani were mercilessly slaughtered along with their cows.
“They (Fulani) are fellow Nigerians and indigenes of this area; they should be treated with dignity.”
At a security meeting in the Government House, Gen. Ahanotu told Ishaku he had never seen such a gruesome devastation since he started his military career.
According to him, there was serious detestation among the people and they only waited for the opportunity to unleash terror on their neighbours.
“Leaders are not supposed to lie but in Gembu, the leaders are lying because of hatred for their neighbours,” he said.
Gen. Ahanotu advised the governor to apply for the extension of military personnel in the warring area to forestall a retaliation.
Minister knocks governor, Speaker
The Minister for Women Affairs and Social Development, Aisha Alhassan, faulted Governor Ishaku and Speaker of the House of Assembly Abel Peter Diah, for the crisis.
Alhassan, who addressed reporters in Jalingo, the state capital, accused the Ishaku administration of “fuelling the crisis by asking people to go and fight”.
She said: “Ishaku has failed for failing to perform his primary duty of protecting lives and property. And it is unfortunate that people are calling for a state of emergency in Taraba.
“When crisis broke out in Takum, the governor’s home, he did not say anything. Now, there is crisis in Sardauna, he is not saying anything. People have asked me about my stand on the crisis and I told them to ask the governor.”
The minister urged Ishaku to learn from Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, who is holding peace and security meetings with regional leaders to douse tensions caused by the separatist agitators and coalition of northern youth groups.
According to her, Ishaku has failed so woefully that she would support the lawmakers should they begin impeachment move against the governor.
“Let them impeach him (Ishaku), let the deputy become governor and if he fails too, he shall be impeached too. What we want is the person who will perform.
“If the House of Assembly makes moves to impeach him, I will support them. He should work like a governor; Ishaku should wake up and learn from other governors who are performing.”
Governor condemns violence
Governor Darius Ishaku held a peace and security meeting when he returned from Germany. The crisis erupted when he was abroad.
Ishaku condemned the violence on the Mambilla Plateau, after listening to stakeholders and security agents and offered his condolences to the affected community.
He noted that the problem with Nigeria is that “we got independence on a platter of gold, so we don’t know what freedom and peace is.”
Ishaku said the crisis was caused because of a lie, describing the incident as “a sad development.”
He ordered security agencies to do their best to restore normalcy.
Speaker’s defence
The Speaker, Abel Peter Diah, denied giving land to his kinsmen. He debunked allegations that he sponsored his Mambilla kinsmen to grab land belonging to any Fulani.
“I did not give anybody any land in Nguroje.
“As the Speaker and being a Mambilla, I am not surprised by the accusation,” Diah said.
He, however, called for peace.
Cause of the violence
Commissioner of Police Yunana Babas said the crisis was an aftermath of a court case between two Mambilla men – Umaru Musa Moh’d Jidda and Hussaini Sule and a Fulani, Abubakar Rini.
The Magistrates’ Court found Jidda and Sule guilty and remanded them in prison.
He spoke at the state command headquarters and at the security meeting in the Government House.
His words: “Their kinsmen started making calls to the complainant, threatening to burn down their houses and kill them if they did not go to court to release their detained kinsmen.
“They actualised their threat when the court did not release Jidda and Sule. They burnt down houses and inflicted injuries on their victims.”
Babas added that the Mambilla gave ethnic colouration to the conflict “by conspiring and mobilising their kinsmen for the dastardly acts that were recorded”. According to him, 18 bodies were recovered.
The police boss faulted security agents, including the vigilante, for not doing their job because of tribal sentiments.
He said the situation in Gembu is so complex and criminals took advantage to loot and worsen the destruction.
Babas’s account corroborates eye-witnesses’ version of the cause of the crisis.
But the Fulani Elders’ Forum said he downplayed the figure of casualties, saying over 200 Fulani have been buried.
The forum alleged that a local militia was contracted to kill the Fulani and destroy their property, on the orders of the local government Chairman John Yep.
The forum, in a statement, said the crisis began on June 16, when the militia protested the arrest of Umaru CID, a ring leader of the group in Nguroje, by security operatives over a land dispute.
“On getting information about the arrest of the militia leaders, Yep immediately led some Mambilla youths to storm Nguroje, alleging that the arrest was instigated by the Fulani. This led to a total siege on Nguroje and its environs.”
“While the assault lasted, Yep ran round villages to mobilise his kinsmen. He sold a dummy to his tribesmen and painted a wrong and malicious picture that his Mambilla kinsmen were being attacked by Fulani.
“He made a personal radio message through the Taraba State Broadcasting Service (TSBS) Gembu Booster Station, calling on his kinsmen to execute the genocide on the station’s transmissions of Saturday evening and Sunday morning.”
Sources said Yep’s phones were seized by soldiers when they discovered he was speaking with the perpetrators.
Representative of the Fulani community at the meeting, Saidu Bawa, accused the Diah and Yep of poking the fire of war.
Representative of the Mambilla community, the Wakili Mambilla Alhaji Zubairu, said the crisis erupted as a result of the arrest of Umaru CIB, a mambilla, for his alleged involvement in crime.
Representative of the Miyatti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, Ahmadu Bello, accused the Speaker of sponsoring his men to grab lands belonging to Fulani.
Former ambassador to Cameroun republic in his reaction, said the land in Gembu was owned by Mambilla people, being the first to settle on the Plateau.
But of late, he said, Certificates of Occupancy were wrongly given to the Fulani when the government started sourcing revenue on their livestock.
The representative of Tabita Fluka accused the government of negligence, adding that the state was informed ahead of time when tension began to brew but it did not bother to put a quick response.
He added that it was wrong to have a Wikilin Mambilla in Nguroje settlement, when there was a substantive Galadima Nguroje.
“Some Mambilla youths have constituted themselves into a lawless group, formed by the council chairman John Yep, who calls himself Mandella, who gloats he must collect all Fulani lands. You cannot arrest any member of the youth group.”
According to the representative of the DSS, Shehu Saulawa, the crisis should be traced to the attitude of the political elites of the area. They don’t talk the truth.
“They need to speak the truth for the problem to be addressed,” he said.
He hinted that the problem in Gembu has been compounded by politicians such that at the moment you will not even arrest youth.
He warned of a possible reprisal and urged the government to intervene urgently.
