From Jude Owuamanam, Jos
The killing of more than 160 persons in three local government areas of Barkin Ladi, Bokkos and Mangu in Plateau State on Christmas Eve is the latest in the more than three decades old history of bloodletting in central Plateau, tagged Nigeria’s version of Middle East
•Distraught villagers inspecting the ruins of their houses
“We will make sure that you celebrate your Christmas while running away with your pot of rice.” This was the message allegedly sent to the residents of Dares Mandar, one of the sleepy villages of in Bokkos local government area of Plateau few weeks before Christmas by herders with whom they had co-habited for decades. The people might have taken the message for granted and had gone ahead to make preparations to celebrate the Christmas.
However, true to their words, as the people slept on the eve of the celebration, waiting to launch into the mood of Christmas, disaster struck. And by the end of that day, the marauders had overran 12 villagee namely: Ndun, Ngyong, Murfet, Makundary, Tamiso, Chiang, Tahore, Gawarba, Dares, Meyenga, Darwat, and Butura Kampani village. Another three communities in Barkin-Ladi LGA namely: NTV, Hurum, and Darawat, with many killed and hundreds of houses bunt.
The residents said that the people that attacked them were residents of Fulani hamlets close to Baptist Church, Dares Mandar and close to Angwan Tashar in Dares.
As he battled for his life at the Jos University Teaching Hospital, one of the survivors, Maska Nanpan, told our correspondent said that a day before the attack, two men in army uniform visited the village. He said that unknown to them, the duo came to spy on the land.
“Two men in soldier’s uniform came to our village. We did not know their mission, but their visit did not raise any suspicion because we are used to soldiers coming to our villages. But this time around, we are sure that those two men were not soldiers, but part of the killers who came to spy on the land.
Another survivor, Moses Gaskya, said: “The attackers came into our village and when they came, they were carrying guns and other sophisticated weapons. They came into our house and immediately they entered, they hit the door and pushed it open.
“When they entered, they saw me and they called my name and the next thing was that they used their knife, machete, and other weapons to hit me. They kept calling my name, I refused to answer. They cut my leg, they cut my hand. When they saw that I had stopped breathing, they decided to let me go. They were speaking in a language I know. I identified two of the attackers, they are people we know in my village.”
Yet another survivor, James Makingat, who escaped with bullet wounds, said he could clearly identify the attackers. He said the first set of attackers came from those living in Dares and were the ones responsible for the death of 11 Ron natives in Dares Mandar
Another survivor, who identified himself as Stephen, said he was lucky to be alive because one of the attackers told him to run while they attacked others and burnt down houses.
A resident f Bokkos, Alfred Mashat, described the events of those 48 hours of horror thus: “A dark cloud descended upon Bokkos, casting its shadow over the festive season. On the eve of Christmas, December 24, 2023, a calculated assault was unleashed upon our villages, shattering the peace and leaving many scrambling for safety. This brutal act, despite warnings circulating on social media, is a stark reminder of the vulnerability we face and the urgent need for decisive action.
“Our people huddle in the cold, seeking refuge from the flames that engulf their homes and the terror that stalks their land. While the presence of the military in some areas offers a flicker of hope, the scars of this attack run deep. Villages like Dares, Tahore, Tamiso, Wang, Butura Kampani, Maijankai, Hirpiya and countless others bear the brunt of this senseless violence. Crops lay trampled, houses stand as smoldering ruins and hundreds of lives have been tragically cut short.”
Mashat said the villagers identified their attackers and even picked some of their belongings. He said: “One of the phones of the attackers fell down and it is in possession of the locals at the moment.”
How the attacks started
The attacks were reported to have started on December 23 in Barkin Ladi. It spilled over to December 24 and continued for hours before the late arrival of security operatives. Yet, when security agents arrived the scene, they were said to be inadequate and were clearly overwhelmed by the marauding hired Fulani herdsmen, some of who adorned military camouflage.
The attacks were said to have continued until the early hours of December 26 2023. Musa Istifanus Musa, a survivor, said the gunmen, who attacked Bokkos, arrived in the community on bikes at about 11.30pm on Sunday and opened fire at random on their residences when most of whom had gone to sleep, shooting or hacking people to death. Musa said he lost his wife and two children.
However, as the survivors bury their dead and the injured recuperate at various hospitals, the dramatis personae have continued to give divergent reasons for the present carnage. While one narration said that the killings were unprovoked, another version had it that the killings were sparked off when some criminal gangs stole some cattle belonging to the Fulani herdsmen.
Commissioner for Information in the state, Musa Ashoms, said that the attack was unprovoked and totally uncalled for. He said that the attacks were well planned, well articulated and well executed going by the way it was coordinated. He, however, said this is not time to lay blame, but to seek a solution to the age long conflict.
But the herders represented by the Miyetti Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), in Plateau State, through their chairman, Muhammad Nuru Abdullah, said that the whole episode is about cattle rustling and inability of the farmers to accommodate the herders. According to him, the problem started when three Fulani herders were killed while trying to rescue their own cattle among the 181 that were rustled by criminal gangs.
He said: “The whole problem started as a result of cattle rustling, 181 cows were rustled on 23/12/2023 (Saturday). Three Fulanis among the owners in spirited efforts to rescue their cattle from the rustlers were killed. Luckily, the rustlers failed to escape with their prices. On Sunday, December 24, 22 people were killed in the aforementioned villages. This is the trigger of the recent crisis.”
Abdullahi said that that incident culminated in a series of other killings, which led to a harvest of death. “The ugly incident (of Christmas Eve) happened around Mushere and Bokkos districts of the local council. The incident happened on Sunday 24, between the hours of 8am and lasted for nine hours.”
The MACBAN chairman said that what was intriguing was that security personnel were leading the operation where more than 100 houses of the Fulanis were burnt down completely.
“This is a security brutality which is totally unacceptable. The Fulani in general are oppressed and stretched beyond elasticity. The security agencies are expected to be neutral arbiters in crisis situations, not to flagrantly take sides.
“We have been hearing a series of accusations that the Fulani were behind the attacks that led to the killings in Bokkos and Barkin Ladi. This accusation is mere falsehood and uncalled for. We make bold to say what has been happening is an outright act of criminality by unpatriotic Nigerians that are hell bent on perpetrating criminality.
“It is worthy of note that the early morning Sunday attack by security personnel in collaboration with bandits, on our members was without any provocation and it is barbaric.
“The burning of Fulani houses on Sunday in Makada, Matalem, Momdun, Matol, Tashan Maikarfi, Yelwan Nono, Fokos, Shoro and Morfet villages was totally uncalled for. A total of about 130 houses were burnt and demolished.
“This unprovoked act of criminality is totally condemnable, particularly at a time that we have put behind us incidents of the past to work with government and security agencies to ensure lasting peace in our communities.
Muslim cleric, Sheikh Ishaq Lawal, also put around deliberate acts of criminality which always metamorphosed into communal or tribal/religious crises.
“The trend always is that some criminals attack, kill and rustle Fulani and their cattles. The Fulani return armed to retaliate beyond the harm done to them. Our government and its controlled press carry one side of the story.
“Fulani and their cattle have been on the Plateau before the amalgamation of 1914 which gave birth to Nigeria. The government should find the best way to continue to accommodate them and ensure they all carry out the activities within the laws of the land. This cycle will continue as long as we continue to shy away from these facts,” he said.
Country Director, United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Nigeria, Chris Kwaja, also described the recent incident as pure acts of criminality that’s perpetrated by an organized group, going by the level of coordination, sophistication and lethality of the act. According to him, the security architecture in Nigeria is so centralised as to make quick response to security breaches very difficult.
He said: “I still reiterate my earlier point about the decentralization of Nigeria’s security architecture, in ways that give state and local governments some level of security related decision making powers. Accountability has been another area of concern, which the government must address, in terms of ensuring justice for victims of such acts, and sanctions for perpetrators. Government must prioritize citizens’ security by investing heavily in policing towards ensuring public safety. Issues of livelihoods and rural governance should be addressed in ways that open up the rural communities to government presence.”
The same story was echoed by the Country Director, Amnesty International, Isa Sanusi, who put the blame squarely on failure of the Nigerian authourities to bring the perpetrators to justice. According to him, the fact that nobody had been arrested and prosecuted in the last three decades of the carnage on the Plateau had not deterred the invaders, but rather emboldened them to kill more.
For a lasting peace, the people of Bokkos community have presented some demands from the federal government.
Their spokesman, Prof. Stephen J. Mallo, who presented these demands during the visit of the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to the area, said there is the need to put security posts at all the flash points immediately, especially in the following places:
Ndun, Ngyiong, Tahore, Chirang, Tashan Masara, Maiyanga, Tamiso, Dares, Bodel, Josho axis, Sending, Mbong-Yelwan Nono, UTC Farm, Laka, Marish, Fwangni, Karara, Makada, Bukjir and Matelem. Other demands are: “The immediate rehabilitation and resettlement of farmers to their ancestral homes; establishment of a police division in Daffo to complement that of Bokkos and carter for the mountainous retrains of entire Kulere axis.
“Need to establish a mobile police barrack in Bokkos probably to be situated at Mbar; the axis cutting across Mushere, Kulere, Daffo, Sha, Manguna and up to the border with Wamba poses a great threat to security and the people. There is the urgent need to improve on the communication network as social responsibility by the operators. Only the FGN through your timely request can expedite this.
“The killing of the paramount ruler Saf. Lazarus Agai and three other monarchs since 2016 has not yet been resolved as the perpetrators are yet to be identified and brought to justice. Poverty and hunger has relationship with criminality hence for the government to embark on projects that can improve the economy of the local government such as completion of the Panyam-Bokkos-Daffo-amba Road, the Bokkos-Mushere -Kwanpan Road, the establishment of minerals and food processing/conservation plants, adaption of the Livestocks Alimentation and Rural Development Initiative (LARDI).
“The people said they are willing to live peacefully with nationalities, Bokkos being a major cosmopolitan town in the state. Beyond all these explanations, the people said that the whole idea of the killings is to send the villagers packing while the invaders occupy the land.”