Communities in Benue State continue to bear the brunt of herders’ violence with residents who fled their villages attacked at an internally displaced persons’ camp, JOHN CHARLES writes
This may not be the best of times for Benue residents following the rise in armed herdsmen attacks on several communities in the state as no fewer than 200 people have been killed since the renewed attacks commenced shortly after the February 25 presidential election.
If previous experience is anything to go by, clashes between Fulani pastoralists and farmers normally increase during the dry season when they (pastoralists) tend to move downward south to graze their cattle which frequently triggers disputes when the cows stray into farmland and destroy crops.
Because of the Benue Rivers and their tributaries in Katsina-Ala, Buruku, Agatu and down to the Gwer West area, the Benue Valley seems to be very attractive to the pastoral herdsmen. This, no doubt constantly caused feuds between the farmers and herdsmen.
But the latest development and the dangerous dimension, the incessant herdsmen attacks have assumed, particularly, in the past eight years seems to have eroded the aforementioned belief.
Recently, the state government through the Executive Secretary of the State Emergency and Management Agency, Emmanuel Shior, disclosed that 5,138 people had been killed in the state within eight years and added that 18 out of the 23 local government areas of the state had been overrun by herders.
A group known as ‘Forum of Concerned Benue Elders’ on February 10th raised the alarm of planned renewed attacks by herdsmen on communities in the state.
Leaders of the group; Laha Dzever and Moses Jima, raised the alarm while reacting to the purported petition sent to the President, Major General Muhammad Buhari (retd.), by 52 Fulani elders and chaired by the former emir of Kano, Alhaji Lamido Sanusi. The Benue elders faulted the claim that the Benue State Livestock Guards went outside its area of jurisdiction.
The group had said, “Another false narrative that the Benue State Livestock Guards went outside its area of jurisdiction shows how far these elders can go in an attempt to blackmail and give the Benue State Livestock Guards a bad name.
“The Benue State Livestock Guard is a body whose legitimacy has been severally challenged by pastoralists unsuccessfully. We are aware of the renewed threats by the Fulani herdsmen to attack parts of Benue State particularly the Gwer West Local Government Area.”
Barely two weeks after the elders raised the alarm, the suspected armed herders intensified their attacks on Benue communities including Kwande Logo, Apa, Otukpo and Guma LGAs within a space of six weeks.
On February 25, 13 people were reportedly killed by suspected herders in separate attacks on the Lgar, Tse Magu and Tse Dudu communities in Guma. A few days after, seven people were killed at Tse Fela in Mbabuande and Tse Akyegh in the Ikaaghev Council Ward of the Gwer West LGA About four days after, several communities such as Adam, Iyarinwa, Abamde Ityuluv, Waya Boagundu, Agura Ayaga and Azege all in the Turan council ward of the Kwande LGA were invaded and over 50 people were murdered.
The attacks, however, spread to Igbobi and Umogidi communities in Apa and Otukpo respectively in Idoma land, Benue South senatorial district, where about 56 people were reportedly killed within three days between Monday and Wednesday.
Barely 48 hours after the gruesome attacks on the two communities in the Idoma land, the armed herdsmen launched a heavy attack on Mgban in the Nyiev council ward in the Guma LGA and killed about 36 people and no fewer than 38 people were critically injured.
Victims of the Good Friday attack at the Local Government Education Authority Primary School Mgban were people who had fled their communities as a result of herdsmen attacks using the school classrooms as their refuge.
A resident, who simply identified himself as Jonah who spoke to our correspondent on the Good Friday, attack said that many people fell by bullets as they were trying to escape.
“It was like a war situation, gunshots rented the air. No one knew how they came to the school premises. Some hid under the lockers, and many of us fled without knowing where we were heading”, Jonah said.
Other survivors narrated their ordeals in the hands of armed herdsmen that invaded Mgban primary school.
Narrating her ordeal, one of the survivors, Mnenna Orkega, said that she and her children had gone to sleep only to be woken up by sporadic gunshots.
Orkega, who lost her 10-year-old daughter said, “My children and I were already asleep but we were woken up by gunshots.’’
Speaking in the Tiv language, the woman said she attempted to escape through the window when one of the herdsmen grabbed her child and killed her.
Also, the District head of the Nyiev Community Bernard Shawa lost two of his sons to a herdsmen attack.
“I lost two of my sons during the attack. This was not the first time these people (herdsmen) were attacking us here. There was an attack on the day of the presidential election, February 25, 2023, during which 12 persons were killed,” he said.
The traditional ruler appealed to state and federal governments to stop the killing of innocent people in the state.
Irked by the killings in his domain, the paramount ruler of Idoma nation, His Royal Majesty, John Elaigwu, the Ochidoma decried what he described as ‘coordinated hostilities and violent attacks within the farming communities of the Benue South, especially but not limited to Apa/Agatu corridor.’
In a statement issued by his media aide, Onuminya Odoba, the monarch said that about 75 people had been killed within his domain in a short period of time.
“These recent attacks have claimed not less than 75 lives and displaced thousands from their homes and businesses. The attacks also claimed the life of the Chief of Igbobi in the Apa LGA” the monarch said in the statement.
The royal father called on the state and federal governments to rise to their constitutional responsibility of defending the lives and property of her citizens.
Shedding light on the attack on the Igbobi community, the Chairman of the Apa Development Association, Adah Ocholi, explained that the herdsmen attack on communities in Apa was renewed in January, stating that almost 20 villages had been wiped out since then.
Ocholi said, “In fact, they started these (recent attacks) on January 17 this year. The attacks were renewed because they occur almost every year. During the dry season, the herders come back attack people, maim and rape women and destroy their farm crops and houses.
“But this year’s is colossal because they have wiped out almost 20 villages if not more. At the moment I cannot even remember the exact number of villages that have been sacked so far.’’
Going down memory lane, Ocholi said that for the past 20 years, herders no longer live in communities in the Apa Local Government Area.
“For between 20 and 30 years now herders don’t reside in Ikobi because herdsmen killed an Ikobi man in 1983 and since then they ceased to settle in the place except when passing through the land to other places but once they stumbled on anybody, they killed him or her. That has been the situation.
Apparently supporting the submission of Ocholi, the State Secretary of Miyeitt Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, Ibrahim Galma, said that no herdsman lived in Apa and Otukpo local government areas.
He said, “We don’t have members in Apa and Otukpo. We don’t know them. We don’t know their leaders and we don’t know where they come from. We are only aware of those along the boundary or riverine areas along River Benue They are there in their thousands and we always hold meetings with their leaders and whenever we ask them about those in Apa they don’t know them.
“So anytime we have meetings only those within the riverine areas in Agatu and Naka do attend, But those ones in Apa, we don’t know them. You know that Apa has no boundary with Nasarawa, so we cannot identify those who penetrate Apa and Otukpo.
With the submission of the MACBAN scribe, the questions on the lips of many residents of the state are, where do these killer herdsmen come from? And what is their motive?
