Linus Oota, Lafia
March 24 and April 14, will remain indelible in the minds of farmers in Katanza, Mante, Nidan, as well as Numa-Kuchim villages in Andaha community of Akwanga local government in the northern part of Nasarawa State.
On these days, suspected Fulani herdsmen swooped on them, torched their homes, forcing them to take refuge elsewhere.
Worst still many members of the communities were hacked down and sent to their early graves by the marauding Fulani militia who had allegedly declared operation one man, one bullet on the innocent farmers.
Some natives of the town lamented the attack, saying that the deadly escapades of arms-bearing Fulani herdsmen are becoming increasingly unsettling in the northern part of the state after they left their footmark in the southern part of Nasarawa in 2018, where more than 100 Tiv farmers were killed, while over 300 villages were razed to the ground.
It took the proactive steps of Nasarawa State Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura to bring the situation to an end in the southern zone.
In their latest outing in the northern part of the state where they are reported to have moved to, they had dealt a merciless blow on the host communities; leaving four villages (Katanza, Mante, Nidan and Numa-Kuchin) in ruins.
On April 19, 2019, our correspondent accompanied the Senator representing Nasarawa North Senatorial zone, Philip Gyunka, who took National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) officials from Abuja with heavily armed security men to assess the level of damaged by Fulani militias on the affected villages.
From Katanza to Mante, Nidan to Numa-Kuchim villages, the invaders burned down houses, the effects of these destructions were much on Mante and Nidam villages where all houses were burnt down, except churches which witnesses said the invaders tried to set on fire, but apparently by divine intervention, refused to burn. In Numa-Kuchim where 18 innocent villagers who were celebrating a naming ceremony were allegedly gunned down, body parts of the alleged victims were littered all around the area.
Our correspondent equally sighted gory dried parts of human corpses in various stages of decomposition, there were also scraps of takeaway food containers on the ground and crates of bottles of minerals and hot drinks which were pointers to the fact that the naming ceremony was well planned and organised.
From Katanza to Mante, and from Nidan to Numa-Kuchin, all the villagers had deserted their homes and the few surviving houses became a shadow of their own, domestic animals such as dogs, goats, pig, fowls were seen moving round the deserted burnt houses desperately without anybody to give them direction.
In Mante and Nidam villages where all the houses were razed, skeletons of iron beds, television sets, executive chairs, crates of soft drinks, burnt mattresses and beddings, children’s books, clothes and shoes, women cloth box, particles of burnt motorcycles, toys and tricycles for children were found in various parts of the burnt houses. In most of the rooms apparently referred to as stores, were bags of burnt rice, beans, guinea corn, dry pepper and tomatoes, stores of yams and dry cassava were burnt down, charred grains such as baking pans and bags of garri and alibo were also not left out.
Recounting their ordeals in the hands of the Fulani militias, the owner of the only surviving structure in Katanza, Mr Awuiya Maikudi said the whole story started on March 22, 2019 when the people of Katanza celebrated their cultural day that runs throughout late hours.
According to him, “from Katanza to Mante village is less than a kilometre, so some women from mante attended the cultural day alongside a 15-year-old girl, identified as Joy Danlami, who came from Mante to sell fried yams. Katanza was returning home at about 2:00am in company of another woman. On their way home, some Fulani young men from a close settlement allegedly attacked them and kidnapped Joy, the women was able to escape and informed her people in Mante of what happened. The villagers regrouped and moved to rescue her, by the time they got to the scene of the event, the girl was raped and left unconscious with blood gushing out from her noise, ears, mouth and private part, she was taken that night to a hospital in Akwanga where she later died.
“Angered by the incident, the youths of Mada in Mante village, mobilised and attacked the Fulani settlement and in the process, one of them was killed, the Fulani equally regrouped immediately and launched a reprisal on Katanza, Mante and Nidan villages where all the houses, foodstuffs were razed by the invading Fulani youths.
Though no life was lost, the entire people in the three villages fled to unknown destinations.”
After an on the spot assessment of the situation, Senator Gyunka’s team proceeded to Numa-Kuchin village, about five kilometers from Nidam village where the Fulani militias declared operation one man, one bullet in a naming ceremony and gunned down 18 innocent villagers.
Very heart rending, however, was the account of an eyewitness and a surviving young man identified as Jerry Wuja who was sighted in the deserted Numa-Kuchim village.
He recounted how the village was razed and emptied of their inhabitants by the herdsmen saying, “on Sunday, April 14, 2019 at about 10:00pm, we had a naming ceremony here and suddenly, some people came from this direction and started shooting at us, they killed many people here. There is a Fulani settlement close to us here, as we were running towards their direction for protection, they also opened fire on us, some of us narrowly escaped the attack. The same Fulani people earlier attended the naming ceremony with us, few minutes after they left us the attack came.
“The ceremony was a successful one until about 10:00p.m, the same Fulani men who were with us suddenly opened fire on us, there was pandemonium, people were running in different directions, there were shouts, screams and sound of gunshots, and parents couldn’t wait to pick their wailing children as they dashed for the bush in the night, running for their lives, by the time the dust settled, 18 people lay dead, more than 15 critically injured.”
While we were heading towards the Numa-Kuchin village, we saw a large number of people, elderly, young men, women, children and pregnant women from neighbouring villages forced to walk long distance for fear of further attacks. Upon enquiry, they said there was information that the herdsmen are planning to attack their villages, so they were moving out to a safe environment.
As our correspondent went round the Numa-Kuchim village, dismembered body parts littered everywhere, it was difficult to conclude if it were the body parts of a man or woman, blood stains were seen on walls of old building graveyards, walls and trees allegedly from the sporadic shooting that claimed 18 lives.
Marks of dried blood were seen everywhere on the ground.
“I never knew a day like this will come when 18 innocent villagers in Numa-Kuchim will be sent to their early grave for just no reason,” Wuja stated as he burst into tears.
Wuje said, he believes the motivation for the attack was religious, jihad, especially as he alleged that extremists are planning to take over the villages.
“Our people were massacred and houses burned down by the Fulani herdsmen, we have corpses littered in the field like a war fought in the Roman Empire by Emperor Nero,” he said.
Our correspondent gathered that the entire villagers in Katanza,Mante, Nidan and Numa-Kuchim villages in Andaha community have fled their villages due to the heinous crime by marauding herdsmen, though all Fulani settlements around the affected villages too were empty as they equally fled for fear of a possible reprisal.
Speaking to our correspondent, Senator Philip Gyunka who represents the area said something urgent and decisive has to be done to curb the excesses of these rampaging Fulani herdsmen. From a group of stick-wielding pastoralists, living essentially a nomadic life, theFulani have transformed into an arm-bearing fighting force, leaving trail of destruction wherever they go.
The senator believes that indigenous herdsmen that live together with farmers are not the killers but they harbour the killers who are imported from outside the country, warning them to either expose the criminals among them or face the consequence.