FULANI HERDSMEN: REARING CATTLE IN COMBAT GEAR

In the past, clashes involving Fulani herdsmen and aborigines in the former’s graze-lands had always been isolated cases, requiring mere police intervention and government appeal for truce. But that is no longer the case, as incursions by the Fulani herdsmen are now usually carried out with the fierceness of insurgency. How come these herdsmen are now using sophisticated weapons to fight their causes? What are their grievances, and who are the likely backers of these annoyed citizens? National Mirror, resolves the riddle
Like a thief in the night, Fulani herdsmen last month invaded Anyiin community, the hometown of Governor Gabriel Suswam in Benue State, killing, maiming and like in time past, sacking the community dwellers who fled for dear life.
According to reports, it was gathered that the militants who were about 100 in number also attacked Chembe, Ifer and Tse Gundu, Anawah settlement at Ukemberaga/Tswarev ward of Logo Local Government area of Benue State.
One of the residents who escaped the swords of the attackers in Benue State recounted that the marauders came into the communities in two groups.
According to him, “they came in two groups numbering over a hundred. One of the groups came through Ikapa-Tse Gundu Road to attack Chembe village while the other group, using another route, came out at Achive compound.
“At Achive, they mounted a road block along Anyiin- Wukari road, shooting sporadically, forcing the people who had returned to their homes after fleeing previous attacks to scamper into the bush for safety. The attackers carried out the operation for several hours killing people without molestation despite the supposed presence of security operatives in the area.”
In similar vein, two villages in Zamfara State were nearly sacked by suspected Fulani herdsmen that killed scores of people in Yar Galadima village of Maru Local Government of the state. Yar Galadima village is about 10 km to Dansadau, the epicenter of clashes between armed bandits and vigilance groups in Zamfara State.
The attack majorly targeted the meeting of community leaders and vigilance groups in Galadima village, Zamfara State. The meeting was discussing action against robbers and cattle rustlers. The hoodlums, numbering over 70, stormed the venue of the meeting being held by the vigilance group in the village to discuss security challenges in the area and the neighbouring states of Kaduna and Niger. It was gathered that in attendance were members of the vigilance group, youths and community leaders in these concerned states.
The casualties recorded on that day were high owing to the fact that it was the market day of the village, which made the number of people around to be high.
Reports disclosed that midway into the meeting, the armed bandits stormed the venue and surrounded the entire building. The gunmen, who reportedly came with sophisticated weapons such as Sub- Machine Guns (SMGs) and AK 47 rifles, sprayed those at the meeting with bullets, killing about 70 people on the spot while they also reportedly set fire on the village before fleeing.
About two years ago, Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of Taraba State, Ibiang Mbaseki after their dastardly act in the state has this to say about the incident: “A large group of Fulani militants putting on police and military uniform had invaded New Gboko in Takum Local Council of Taraba State. They succeeded in killing one police corporal. They were armed with more sophisticated riffles, including AK47 and they were all dressed in military and mobile policemen uniform.”
Shortly after the Taraba incident, another clash at the Benue border was reported, by an eyewitness that:,“farmers of Ai-Nedu community had gone to carry out their routine farming activities when they ran into an ambush of over 100 men who marched through Ogilolo community dressed in military camouflage and armed with sophisticated weapons.” The farmers were killed in cold blood and just a few were lucky to escape.
The activities of the Fulani marauders continued in 2013. As usual, Fulani marauders, dressed in military uniform, invaded some villages in Guma Local Council of Benue State and killed 20 residents; another group invaded a village in the area, Akuloko, killing no fewer than 12 persons. The marauders drove into the village in a convoy in the early hours of the day and started setting houses ablaze as they shot at the people.
The people of Atakar and their ruler, Tobias Nkom Wada, a remote region in Southern Kaduna in Kaura Local Government, were sacked and forced to become refugee son Saturday, March 30, 2013 by Fulani herdsmen. It was a blaze of deadly attacks which rendered about 4,500 people homeless and an unconfirmed number of people dead. Houses were set ablaze and most of the community members fled to Tachire village and other close villages.
The members of the House of Representatives from the Southern part of the state that visited the affected communities of Atakar on a fact-finding mission could not hold back their tears at the level of destructions inflicted on the people.
In reaction to the incessant attacks of the Fulani herdsmen, the Southern Kaduna People Union (SOKAPU), a socio-cultural organisation for the Christian-dominated part of Kaduna, in 2013, raised the alarm that the marauders are plotting more killings as majority of them from the trouble areas in Plateau State have found their way into Southern Kaduna.
The President of SOKAPU, Ephraim Goje, warned the authorities to take urgent actions, considering the persistent attacks the communities in southern part have gone through in the hand of the marauders since 2011. He said, “The presence of people behind the persistent attacks on communities in Southern Kaduna is seriously giving the people sleepless nights”.
On Sunday, April 6, 2013, less than a week after the attack on Atakar, these attackers struck again at Suwa and Burukutu in Larmude Local Government area of Adamawa State. It was reported that Fulani herdsmen of over 500 descended on the two communities, using machetes, knives, arrows, axes and other weapons. The attack was said to be on a revenge mission.
The mayhem continued unabated in Nasarawa, Egon and Doma local government areas as they were attacked for daring to challenge them when they entered their farmlands with their cattle at different times. Iga in Egon, and Rutu in Doma of Nasarawa State were worse hit by the Fulani herdsmen.
For more than three decades, the Fulani herdsmen had been at war with Plateau State. They had attacked one community from one local government to another. It was a tough job for each government of the day to control this situation.
It would be recalled that Solomon Lar, former governor of Plateau in the 1980s set up a committee to look into the remote and immediate causes of the crisis and give their recommendations on a lasting solution. The committee’s report, like others after it, was buried in the state house. During the Ibrahim Babangida military presidency, he split Jos into two local governments, Jos North and Jos South, to calm the situation but it worsened the fragile peace as the attacks by the Fulani continued unabated. Notably among the attacks were those on Wase Tofa Village, Turaki ward, Kanana village, Maza ward in Wase, Langtang in Jos North Local Government, to mention but few. Indeed, the people of Plateau State have lived with the menace of the Fulani herdsmen for so many years. According to reports, several thousands of persons had lost their lives in the crises, while properties worth billions of naira had been destroyed since 1981.
When the situation worsened in late December, 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Riyom, Barki Ladi and Jos North Local Government area, following frequent and deadly clashes between the herdsmen and the natives which snowballed into ethnoreligious clashes within most parts of the state. The declaration of the state of emergency did not deter them from further attacks as they laid in ambush in Barki Ladi and Riyom local government areas and murdered people who were on their way to pay last respects to those murdered earlier. That attack resulted in the death of a serving senator at that time, Gyang Dantong.
Unfortunately, the activities of the Fulani herdsmen were not restricted to the North as they extended their orgy of killings and maiming to the South-South, South-East and South-West geopolitical zones. Given their nomadic life, the Fulani herdsmen found their way to the Southern part of Nigeria in their drive to feed their cattle. While moving from one place to another, they enter communities and farmlands with their cattle which often destroy farmlands. The herdsmen are goaded by their age-long culture and they believe that they have the right to grazing land and water anywhere without limitation of boundary. The farmers who they trample their land often resisted and this resulted in clashes between them.
Last year, the Fulani herdsmen invaded Oja-Odan, a border town between Nigeria and Benin Republic, close to Ilaro town in Ogun State and killed Agbaose Sewotan, a farmer and injured many inhabitants of the town. The State governor, Ibikunle Amosun, not comfortable with the action of the herdsmen, threatened to stop their movement within the state. He was criticised and was told that Nigerian constitution guarantees everybody freedom of movement.
At Ughelli North Local Government, two indigenes of Ohoro community lost their lives to the herdsmen. It took the intervention of the governor of the state, Emmanuel Uduaghan, to pacify the enraged youths that laid siege to the East- West road and the surrounding bushes in search of the herdsmen.
The people of Ogume community in Ndokwa West Local Government and the herdsmen also clashed over the destruction of their farmlands. The herdsmen, according to reports, fought the community with AK 47 rifles and they killed six people while many were injured.
In the South-East, Enugu to be precise, they left their trail as they killed two students- Thadeus Utazi, 17 years, and Okeh Michael, 19 years old, at Nimbo community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government. The students were on their way to the farm to help their parents when they met their untimely death.
At different times, they clashed with villagers in Imo State over the destruction of their farmlands. One of such violent clashes was at Umuakpu in Ohaji/Egbema/ Oguta Local Government area. The incident also claimed many lives. Less than five months after the Imo incident, residents of Ketu land in Ogun State recalled the horrifying moments when the herdsmen slaughtered no fewer than 21 people in the area. They vividly recollected the rape of a bride 24 hours before her wedding, on her way to fetch water from a river in the community.An incident which is still fresh in the memory of most Nigerians is the death of Sylvester Iruh, a retired Brigadier- General on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. The late retired General stopped to change the tyre of his car on the expressway when he was attacked by some Fulani herdsmen. He was killed and his corpse abandoned by the roadside.
It was against this backdrop that when some herdsmen with their cattle ran away from various states to Niger State for succour, the state government reacted swiftly by sending them packing out of the state. They were evacuated at the instance of the communities who raised the alarm and expressed fears, sighting a large group of herdsmen. The first evacuation was about 200 Fulani cattle rearers from Rijana in March and the second was from Lapai.
Apparently disturbed by the constant friction, the Northern State Governors Forum (NSGF), through its chairman and governor of Niger state, Alhaji Babangida Aliyu, issued a press statement stating that it had fixed a meeting between the 19 governors of the region and the Miyitte Allah Association of Cattle Breeders in order to tackle the constant clashes between Fulani herdsmen and the local communities in parts of the north, where crises between them wrecked so much havoc.
Before the meeting, Aliyu met with the state branch of the association before going to the enlarged NSGF meeting to enable him familiarise himself with the nature of the problem before meeting his colleagues.
Speaking after the meeting, the herdsmen state chairman, Mallam Ismaila Rebe, lamented at the loss of lives and properties due to the incessant clashes between them and farmers. Rebe, who is also the North Central chairman of the association, pointed the need for urgent steps to be taken by both the states and the Federal Government in halting the situation.
He noted that the only way the increasing spate of violence between the two groups would be put to an end was for government to set aside pastoral areas for cattle grazing, saying lack of proper demarcation of grazing fields and non adoption of a comprehensive pastoral resource development programme were the major causes of constant friction in the north.
In reaction to criticism over evacuating the herdsmen from his state, Aliyu hinged his action on the fact that no one can guarantee the state government that their stay in the area will not lead to an outbreak of crisis. He explained that the measure was quickly adopted to stabilise the relative peace enjoyed in the state.
Aside that, according to him, the proactive step was also to prevent a situation where insurgents would hide under the guise of being herdsmen to unleash mayhem on the people of the state. Aliyu insisted, “I will prefer to be accused of dislodging people than to be counting corpses on the roads.”
He also observed that the sophistication of the weapons and method being used by insurgents in some parts of the country to unleash terror on the people had revealed those behind the dastardly acts are not Fulani herdsmen.
“A colleague governor recently told me that some of those described as herdsmen who attacked some communities in his state were speaking French.”
He, however, blamed the challenge on porousness of the nation’s borders that has given room for people of questionable character to come into the country, while pointing out the need to pay attention to the issue of security.
Aliu Usman, a farmer in Burukutu in Larmude Local Government area of Adamawa State believes that the inability of government to deal decisively with the herdsmen who are fingered for most of the killings in different parts of the country may be connected to the powers behind them. He said, “Many of the influential northerners who own the cattle are either retired military officers or powerful civil servants. They are so powerful that they can do anything to protect the herds of their cattle in any part of the country.”
“It is a common knowledge that these Fulani people worked for wealthy and influential northerners who also own the cows. These people ensure that the Fulanis account for every cattle in their care. That is the major reason they protect their cattle with their lives.
“We’re aware that the Fulani herdsmen are equipped by their masters. Initially, what they equipped them with are bows and arrows. They were later given AK 47 rifles because of the growing resistance of villagers and communities that are strongly opposed to grazing on their lands. They terrorise everybody with their weapons and careless the damages were done.
A security personnel who does not want to be identified queried, “I wonder how these Fulani herdsmen have proper and accurate intelligence of when to attack. It is baffling that our security services with the wealth of the nation and the official office to protect Nigeria never has intelligence on where and when these unknown gunmen are meeting or attacking so as to apprehend or eliminate them! It is sad!”
Barrister Segun Carew in a chat with Sunday Mirror asked, “What has happened to billions supposed to have been expended on nomadic education by the federal government and also states?
“Nomadic education has failed in content and context to address the growing dastardly act of the herdsmen. The many years of Nomadic education should have by now given rise to a few enclaves where the Fulani herdsmen would have been settled in safe ranches where they can be examples to the Nomads that their life style has no place in the world of today. This is what we ignored in designing the Nomadic education curricula.
“Nomadic grazing should be outlawed. The Fulani herdsmen must learn to acquired land, pen their cattle and cultivate or buy vegetation to feed their cattle, while also sinking boreholes/wells for water and building more permanent housing. This way, they can be easily accessible for veterinary services, to organised security, and to butchers and the public, who will now know where to locate them and buy their livestock. These unnecessary running battles over destroyed farmland, exposure to rustlers and unending murderous rampage can be settled with just a little reorientation, awareness and compromise.
Ike Okonta who resides in Makurdi urged the Federal and States Governments to act and curb the madness going on. He said, “Benue is the basket of the Nation. Many especially the Tivs are mainly farmers. Destroying their source of income and living will also affect the Nation in the future. The Fulanis must not take advantage of community’s farmlands for their nomadic grazing! They should not say they are ignorant of the law.
“They are fond of carrying weapons everywhere they go! We use to see those Fulani herdsmen carrying daggers for their protection, now they are carrying AK47 and other assault weapon.
“Do they have special permit to carry weapons or is it that the government is turning blind eyes or that guns is better handled by the Fulani than others, as such nobody care to query their activities over these period of time. If people in other part of the country start carrying knives, daggers and guns on street in the name of nomadic lifestyle, I am sure by now Nigeria will be in another civil war.”
Okonta observed that it is time the government at all levels should monitored closely the activities of the Fulani’s everywhere they go. “There are Fulani herdsmen in virtually every state in the federation. There is hardly any state they have not had fights with the host community, natives over there own farm lands where they move with their cows and cattles, they don’t have right to destroy their farmlands.”
“The federal authorities should call this Fulani trigger-happy nomad’s to order: otherwise someday, war will break out through the activities of the Fulani in this country, thus making the Bokoharam insurgency a child’s play if they are not checkmated” Okonta added.
In a telephone chat with Sunday Mirror, the National Vice chairman of the Fulani Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Alhaji Mahammed Jauro Gani Azare said herdsmen/farmers only clash during farming session and harvest period. He noted that farmers were accused of blocking Fulani grazing routes with their claims of inheritance of the land. Unlike the past, there is no law that gives the Fulani right to maintain grazing routes as it was during the native authority periods.
Azare added that there is urgent need for government to summon all the Fulani and other so as to fashion a system that will ensure peace and unity. However, he implored the government to caution the youths on any act of violence, stealing and brigandage.
Government, he maintained, should also provide grazing routes, schools, water and other social amenities to Fulani communities explaining that Fulani don’t need light because they are migrants.
The Director –General to Governor Yuguda on reconciliation and mediation Mr.Keneth Masau also spoke to Sunday Mirror. He said the Bauchi State Government had been pro-active in taking appropriate measures to curtail the menace of farmers/Fulani clash since its emergence. The governor had provided environment that is conducive which can guarantee peaceful co-existence between all the ethnic groups in the state.
He attributed farmers/Fulani clash to the deathly operation of cattle rustlers, with farmers barricading grazing routes, a development that led to the death of many innocent people following reprisals between the Fulani and many ethnic groups.
Chairman of the Miyatti Allah Cattle Hore Association in Katsina State, Hassan Kuraye said that the major thing that Fulani herdsmen want is for people to desist from encroaching existing cattle routes and grazing fields.
Kuraye said it was due to the encroachment problem that cases of herdsmenfarmers clash were often witnessed in some parts of the country. He said that there were several international and local cattle routes that had been encroached by farmers. He disclosed that the encroachment by rich men and farmers on cattle routes for a long time have made people to believe that such routes or grazing fields is a personal possession.
He said when herdsmen come to such places with their animals, it was often difficult to graze and drink water without the animals straying into farms or property located on the animals’ path.
He also said compensation should be given to families of Fulanis that has lost their loved ones and cattle during clashes or rustling, as failure to do so could lure them into involving in anti-social behaviour like militancy.
Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero of Kaduna State had employed strategies aimed at bringing permanent peace especially in Kaura Southern part of his state. Part of the peace efforts employed is the engagement of traditional rulers, among other stakeholders, to end the carnage by suspected Fulani herdsmen.
He urged traditional rulers to avoid being partisan as leaders of all, their role is critical in the efforts of building lasting peace and security.
On the attacks on three communities in Kaura Local Government Area, Yero said the state government would assist with rebuilding of burnt houses in the affected villages so as to hasten the rehabilitation process as well as return to normalcy. He said government is also working with relevant security agencies in a bid to increase security presence in the area.
“Dialogue is the only answer; we need to dialogue in order to understand with one another. Like I have said there is no amount of guns or security that can guarantee peace, it is only through dialogue and understanding,” he said
Meanwhile, leaders of the SOKAPU and MACBAN have signed a peace agreement toward ending months of hostilities in the Southern part of Nigeria. The two groups had been embroiled in violence characterised by night attacks that had led to several deaths.
The peace pact, which followed several meetings under the supervision of senior police officials, was signed for the Fulanis by the Chairman of MACBAN in Kaduna State, Ahmadu Suleiman and Chairman, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore Socio-Cultural Association, Dr Ibrahim Abdullahi.
Other signatories for the Fulanis included the State Secretary, Mobgal Fulbe Development Association, Ahmad Yandeh. The Southern Kaduna team was represented by the SOKAPU National President, Dr Ephraim Goje, National Chairman, Moroa Development Association, Musa Sheyin and Member of SOKAPU executive committee, Bitrus Gwadah.
In a communiqué after the peace pact, the two groups stressed the need for ceasefire, continued dialogue and return of peace and unity to the state. They called for the close monitoring of people’s movement, and suggested more involvement of traditional rulers in that respect.
They called for a return to the traditional intelligence gathering mechanisms, while mobile police and military units should be established in Kafanchan and Birnin Gwari for quick response to security challenges. It also urged governments at all levels to improve on security agencies’ capacities to handle crisis by providing adequate logistics.
“The youths should be sensitised on the need for self-restraint and the dangers of taking laws into their hands, while perpetrators of attacks must be fished out and brought to book. The leaders also advised the government to create a Ministry of Animal Resource out of the present Ministry of Agriculture, and the need to gazette of all existing reserves and cattle routes.
“The pastoralists should be encouraged to adopt modern animal husbandry techniques in place of roaming with their livestock, while all grazing reserves that have been encroached should be reclaimed while compensation be paid to the original landowners where this has not been done,’’ it added.
Source: National Mirror