LEWIS OBI. 08173446632 sms only, [email protected]
ON 7th May 2014, Fulani herdsmen killed 25 people and burned six villages in Benue State. Later that week Fulani herdsmen attacked and killed 25 additional people at the Guma Local Government Area also in Benue State. A month earlier, Human Rights Watch reported on 15th April 2014 that hundreds had been killed in the North Central Region of Nigeria since December 2013.
On 11th February 2015 Fulani Herdsmen killed 30 more persons in Benue State and on 11th March, the herdsmen did not spare the palace of the Tor Tiv as they killed 11 more in Tiv land. They killed 90 more on 16th March 2015 in another Benue village and on the 12th April 2015 Fulani herdsmen killed 12 more persons, including children in Benue State. On 26th May 2015 more than 23 more people were killed also in Benue State. Indeed on 15th August 2015, the Benuenews.com.ng, an internet blog, reported that between January and July 2015, 761 persons have lost their lives to Fulani herdsmen in Benue State.
The above incidents are compressed from published indisputable reports. They occurred before September 2015when the herdsmen grabbed a big fish in the person of Chief Olu Falae, 77, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, a former presidential candidate of a major political party, an acknowledged leader of the Yoruba people. He had troubles with the herdsmen in the past. This time they actually kidnapped him, and held him in ransom, mistreated him for nearly six days and forced the chief’s relatives to pay them N5 million for his freedom. The Fulani herdsmen returned two months ago to Chief Falae’s farm, this time they killed his security man.
In all this except the two men who are awaiting trial for the kidnap of Chief Falae, not one Fulani herdsman has been arrested till date, which is why President Buhari’s statements on the herdsmen have elicited nothing but laughter and cynicism. After the Nimbo massacre by the herdsmen, an unusually amateurish statement was purportedly issued by Presidential spokesman Garba Shehu which said among other things that: “Ending the recent upsurge of attacks on communities by herdsmen reportedly armed with sophisticated weapons is now a priority on the Buhari administration’s agenda for enhanced national security and the Armed Forces and Police have clear instructions to take all necessary action to stop the carnage.” It was a belated effort to pretend to react to the herdsmen terror after nearly one year in which the President had played the ‘see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing’ card.
The Ugwuneshi community is still traumatized by its encounter with the herdsmen. The villagers told a visiting Defence Headquarters committee that “they (Fulani herdsmen) have driven us away from our farms; they have also killed our men. We can no longer go to the farm alone; we must go in groups for fear of the Fulani herdsmen. They can never allow you to go and uproot your crop.”
“They have killed Clement Alabiri; they killed him, put him in a bag and dropped him on the road. They have also killed Elisus Ujah, Sunday Okibe and Simon Nwaukwu. Just recently they kidnapped two of our women, Ukaji Nwafor and Maria Nwoke…”
The Association of Nsukka Professors took out a page in a newspaper this week to explain that “There have been incessant killings by Fulani herdsmen in Nimbo, Uzo- Uwani LGA, Enugu State. For instance, in 2013 two JSS2 students attending their parents’ farms were murdered in cold blood by herdsmen in Nimbo while attempting to prevent cattle from mauling their parents’ farms. In 2014, a retired head-teacher and another farmer were killed in Nimbo by Fulani cattle herders while seeking to protect their farms from being destroyed by cattle. In addition to these, innumerable women and girls have been raped, molested and otherwise abused by Fulani cattle herders…ANP strongly condemns the premeditated and carefully choreographed invasion and mindless massacre of over 46 men, women and children in their sleep in Nimbo on 25th April 2016 by Fulani herdsmen.”
“Nomadic pastoralism is archaic, unproductive and unsustainable in the 21st century. Ranching is the way forward and we recommend that the billions invested in arming Fulani Herdsmen with assault and military grade weapons should instead be invested in establishment of ranches. …it is confounding that what we now receive from the Fulani herdsmen whom we have hitherto hosted and lived peacefully with in our land is daily provocation, abuse, and rape of our women and slaughter of defenseless village men, women and children for daring to raise their voice against the destruction of their crops by cattle.”
It has become clear that the cattle breeders have set up a well-funded, well-armed, superbly-trained commando strike force in addition to a logistics network to supply assault weapons in the field when needed. The breeders include some of the richest and most powerful Nigerians, including retired generals, which explains easy availability of weapons to the herdsmen. The Secretary-General of the Nimbo Undergraduates and Graduates Association, Mr. Godwin Ogbobe, recalled that he got wind of the attack from a caller from Nasarawa State where “the Fulanis on Friday (22nd April) afternoon were boasting when they were about leaving for Enugu State, how they will deal with us.”
“I made call desperately and the governor of Enugu dispatched security men immediately. A combined of the military and police mounted roadblock at Obolo Afor for thorough stop and search. Some patrol vehicles were dispatched to my town. For reasons I cannot explain, early morning of Monday by 4 a.m. the Divisional Police Officer in my local government recalled the mobile police men patrolling the community and not up to 30 minutes later the herdsmen attacked. They entered from Kogi State through the bush.”
In corroboration, the Kogi State Police command is said to have stumbled into a suspect who participated in the Enugu massacre and the police only found out when they viewed what was described “a gory video of the Enugu massacre in his phone.” He was said to have confirmed that more than “100 of them were invited from several parts of the country to perpetrate the act.”
Worldwide Fulani herdsmen are now ranked just two slots behind Boko Haram as the fourth most blood-thirsty terrorist organization in the world. It is too late for Northern Governors to spin the atrocities, to deny the obvious, and trivialize the affliction and the tragedies. Luckily this is the electronic age and as long as cell phones exist the deniability of atrocities is no longer available to cruel men and dictators.
. Concluded