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•Displaced Plateau indigenes cry out as herdsmen take over ancestral homes
From Gyang Bere, Jos
In Plateau State, children who were born in 2001 in crises-ridden communities across the state are battling to locate their ancestral homes. Many of these children are willing and eager to visit their villages but do not have the privilege because the villages have been taken over forcefully by suspected Fulani militia.
Since then, most of the children have not experienced peace as their parents who were displaced from their places of abode are moving from one location to anotherseeking shelter. Their life experiences revolve around war, violence and destruction of lives and property.
It is on record that over 100 communities have been annexed by Fulani herdsmen since the outbreak of violence orchestrated in some parts of Miango, Barkin-Ladi, Bokkos and Riyom local government areas since 2001. These terrorists systematically launched midnight attacks on innocent villagers, killed and destroyed homes beyond repairs.
The Fulani herdsmen who wiped out the villages, took possession of the land and renamed them for the purpose of self ownership. Most of them have erected new buildings on the lands belonging to the natives without permission.
Seventeen-year-old Isaac Yohanna, who was born amidst one of the deadly attacks that perished several lives and properties in Bachit District in Riyom LGA do not know the route to his village.
His father, Yohanna Davou, was displaced from his ancestral home in Janda, Rim district after one of the violence that erupted the area in 2001. Isaac was moved hurriedly to Bachit where he was born in 2006, one year before the community was also attacked.
The family moved to Trade Centre in Kuru, Jos South Local Government Area where they squatted with their relatives for several months before they rented one-room apartment. Isaac, who is currently an SS2 Student of Victory Academy High School Turu, has been willing and eager to visit his village but cannot go because Fulani have taken possession of their land.
“It sound displeasing to me that I cannot go to my village because Fulani herdsmen have taken over the place. It is sad and shameful to tell somebody that I don’t know the route to my ancestral home because some terrorists have taken over the land that is the only thing I will inherit from my parents. That will not work, we must revise the status quo.
“Government must exhibit some level of sincerity and expedite action through the anti-land grabbing law to vacate those individuals on our land and give way for us to return to our ancestral homes, this is a task that government must carry out urgently within the existing laws,” he stated.
Also, 13-year-old Emmanuella Gyang, whose parent were displaced, and the mother ran helter skelter with her pregnancy in Rim village, re-echoed the position of Isaac, that she was embarrassed growing up to know that she cannot access her ancestral home on the account that herdsmen have taken over the village.
Emmanuella was born in 2010 close to Rukuba Barracks, in Bassa Local Government Area, where her parents took refuge. She was terrified when she listened to the heart-rending story of how her mother escaped narrowly with her pregnancy from the killers.
Emmanuella, a JSS 2 student was taken to Rim in December 2022 but could not go to her village in Janda because of the massive destruction and her family compound taken over by the herdsmen.
She said: “We refused to be conquered by Fulani, we will ensure that they leave our land for us. How can terrorists invade a community, wipe out people and take over the land when we have government in place?
“This is disheartening, something urgent needs to be done to address these issues of land grabbing because of the future implications. It is painful that I can only see my village but I cannot access it because of insecurity orchestrated by Fulani herdsmen.”
Emmanuela is currently living with her grandfather, who had built a house in Bukuru, Jos South Local Government Area while her father and other siblings live in a rented apartment close to Rayfield in Jos.
For a retired military warrant officer, Davou Ita, life has remained meaningless since his family was displaced and his house occupied by Fulani herdsmen. He can no long access his home and farmlands in Janda village in Riyom where herdsmen are occupying many houses and cultivating land belonging to the natives for food.
Ita, who escaped narrowly with his family during one of the crisis that erupted in Janda village in 2001, said he has not returned to the village since then for fear of being killed by the herdsmen.
He described as pathetic how over 50 persons were massacred in 2012 in Matse, a neighbouring village during a procession for the mass burial of some of the victims of Fulani midnight attack.
The 64-year-old man who lost two of his wives mysteriously in the community is not a happy man today. He disclosed: “My first wife Anna Davou died as a result of heart attack during the crisis. Four months after, my second wife, Mary, died also and after one week, I lost my son, Gyang.
“With these mysterious deaths, what is the meaning of life? I cannot access my house in the village, although it was burnt beyond repairs and taken over forcefully by the Fulani while government is watching. I cannot take my children to the village and I cannot show them my inheritance, what is the meaning of this?”
Ita, who is currently living in a rented apartment at Jebbu Bassa, close to School of the Blind in Bassa Local Government Area has not been lucky. His house was burnt during the 2001crisis, he rebuilt it and it was burnt again in 2012.
“My land was taken away forcefully by the Fulani in 2001. I cannot go there now and nobody goes close to that area because of fear of attack. Some of my brothers were killed and roasted like chickens.
“The Fulani are cultivating my land right now, they built their homes on the land and claim that it is their land. I can’t remember when I visited the village but when you stand in Rim, you will see the houses very clearly. All the villages of Chol, Dahai, Vurung and Dahwol, among others in the area have been taken over by the Fulani.
“I appeal to government to provide security and help us get back our land from the Fulani. Few days back, government was talking of peace and forgiveness and we all agree that we need peace. Therefore, our lands should be handed over to us for there to be forgiveness.
“How can you forgive somebody that has forcefully taken over your land and the authorities are watching and did not ask the person to return it to you and government is asking you to forgive them, how is that possible?
“How can you make peace when your property is not given to you? Since the inception of this crisis in 2001, government has never come up with a blueprint on how to relocate us to our homes. It has never cautioned the Fulani about what they are doing that is wrong. Government has being making fake promises that it will build houses for people to relocate but they have never build any.
“Most of our people are displaced but our culture does not permit us to go and stay in internally Displaced Persons IDPs camp, It is forbidden in our culture, that is why most of the people who were displaced since 2001 have moved to Jos or a safe place to rent an apartment and stay with their children,” he said.
The story of a 200-level student of Geography and Planning Department, University of Jos, Shedrack Davou, is pathetic. He cannot remember his father’s compound vividly at Janda community because the terrorists forcefully eviccted them when he was still much younger.
He desired to visit the village but the terrorists have barricaded the community and taken it to be their own. “I went to Rim town last year but I don’t know the village where my father comes from. I was told that the village has been taken over by the Fulani, I have never been there and I don’t know our farms in the village.
“I have been in the city and I was told that I can’t go to the village because there are people who have occupied the land illegally. Those terrorist came and displaced us and they are claiming the land. They have occupied those places and we can no longer go there,” he lamented.
In the past 20 years, the security situation in the Janda community in Riyom LGA and some parts of the state has been very troubling. Herdsmen have been terrorising the place, killing hundreds of people, including personnel of the army, police, civil defense, civilians and taken possession of the villages.
It is on record that villages such as Krunkwe, Rotsu, Jiri, Ri-meli, and Ri-Bakwa in Miango, Bassa local government areas have been taken over by the herdsmen while, Ganda, Hotom Wereng, Fubok Mandung, Fubok Faram, Farandong Hai, Morok, Shilim in Daffo, Bokkos Local Government Area have also been taken over and occupied by the Fulani.
In Riyom LGA, villages such as Darin, Rankum, Fass, Janda, Shong I and II, Rakweng village, Dashugu, Diyan, Kak and Dajak in Sopp, among several others are currently under possession of the herdsmen.
A copy of a petition dated December 14, 2021, against land grabbing by Fulani invaders in native communities in parts of Barkin-Ladi, Riyom as well as Bokkos and Bassa Local Government Areas of Plateau State, signed by Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri, chief executive officer of Emancipation Centre for Crisis Victims in Nigeria; Gyang Dalyop Dudu, Chairman of Frontline Communities of Berom Education and Robert Ashi, President Irigwe Development Association alleged that over 100 villages have been taken over by herdsmen since 2001.
But Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, during an inter denominational Church Service to commemorate the 2023 Plateau day of forgiveness and reconciliation held at the St. Monica’s Catholic Church Rantya Jos denied that he is not aware of communities that have been taken over by herdsmen in the state.
He debunked the report and said there is no report on his table that any village has been taken over. He said the government took proactive steps to prevent such from happening by passing and signing into law the Anti-Land Grabbing law in 2020.
“By this law, anyone whose land has been forcefully taken is expected to write to me, his traditional ruler, local government chairman, elected representative or even approach the court directly for redress. So far, no one or any community has done so. Rather, some people sit here in their homes and elsewhere to engage in politics and blackmail.
“I want the world to know that what we have been doing is to return displaced persons who fled their homes due to attacks back to their ancestral lands. For example, the site for the construction of a police mobile barracks in Kakuruk, Gashish District Barkin local government area has been handed over to the contractor who will start work immediately to provide security for the people to return to their lands,” he stated.
Lalong said anyone who has such complaint should write to the government or go to court to protest such infraction if it happens, promising that he will not spare anyone who tries to lay claim on any inch of Plateau State that does not belong to him.
