As Fulani militia continue to hunt for lives among their Berom hosts, there are fears of systematic advent of ethnic cleansing and calls on government to nip the trend in the bud. YUSUFU AMINU IDEGU reports on the renewed killings and the resultant humanitarian crisis.
SINCE February this year, no fewer than 200 Berom people are reckoned to have been killed by gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen. More than 15 Berom villages have also been sacked in a trend that has raised fears of ethnic cleansing systematically carried out by the Fulani militia. The population of orphans is on the rise, just as more and more young widows and widowers are being produced on a daily basis. Indeed the fear is heightening that the Birom ethnic group may be wiped out in the near future unless the government does something to check the activities of the gunmen that hold the people hostage.
The Berom people had to take their case to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Bank Ki-Moon during his visit to Nigeria early in the week because they were beginning to think that the government was not interested in their case. The restoration of peace which the Berom people had expected from the administration of Governor Simon Lalong has also turned into a pipe dream as the peace and reconciliatory committee constituted by the governor does not seem to have an answer to the crisis. The government has held three different peace parleys with the stakeholders since Lalong assumed office with strong appeals for calm, but that does not seem to have altered the trend.
Rather than allow peace to reign, the Berom and the Fulani are back in their trenches. Consequently violent conflicts have been the order in the last two months. The warring parties have engaged in series of attacks and counter-attacks, prompting Governor Lalong to impose a dusk to dawn curfew in the areas twice in the last two months. Yet, there seems to be no respite as the warring parties appear to have transferred their aggressions to innocent road users.
Knowingly or unknowingly, both parties have launched attacks on innocent travellers at one time or the other while laying ambush for each other. Last week, following the eruption of violence in Bisichi, about 10 innocent road users had their lives terminated as gunmen blocked the highway and unleashed terror on the road users. Guns now boom ceaselessly in attack or in defence of territories, particularly in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area. At one time it is Riyom; at another time, it is Barkin Ladi, as the killings now occur almost on a daily basis.
As the member representing Barkin Ladi/Riyom Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Barrister Istifanus Gyang, left Abuja for his constituency to commiserate with the families of the victims the four-day carnage in Bisichi, he found the bodies of two young men ambushed and killed by unknown gunmen in a fresh attack. Those who gathered around the bodies informed Gyang that the killings occurred less than 10 minutes before his arrival. Gyang broke down in tears, lamenting the level that human lives have been reduced to in his constituency.
This is the same local government area where Seantor Gyang Dantong and House of Assembly member, Hon James Danfulani lost their lives the same day trying to make peace among the warring factions in 2012. As a matter of fact, human life has lost value in Barkin Ladi. People are killed and their bodies are thrown into the well or buried in shallow graves by the gunmen so that security agencies might not detect their deeds. In some cases, the body is set ablaze so that the victim would not be recognised.
Last week, a student of Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa, Gyang Pam, died in the hospital after two major operations, having been shot in the eye. His parents’ initial fear was that he might not be able to see again with the affected eye. But they would have preferred that the student came out of his sick bed with one eye than passing on after spending five days in the hospital.
His elder brother, Geofrey Chuwang, who was with him in the hospital, said amid tears: “My brother would have survived the gunshot but for the wickedness of the soldiers of the STF.” According to his family members, the hapless student was being escorted back to school by three of his friends, when some soldiers on an armoured vehicle of the STF took them as some of the trouble makers and opened fire on them.
Chuwang said: “A bullet from the soldiers’ guns hit my brother in the left eye and he fell, but the soldiers prevented us from taking him to the hospital. While he was shot at 11 am on Tuesday morning, they refused to release the boy to us until 11 pm the same day. This is pure wickedness. If we had rushed him to the hospital early enough, my brother would have survived.”
The youth leader of Bisichi, Mr. Pam Bot lamented amid sobs: “How can we be subjected to this kind of horror in our land? Our grandparents welcomed these Fulani people when they came, accommodated them and gave them land to live. Today, the same Fulani have become terrorists to the Berom people. What have we done to them? Who will save us from the hand of these terrorists?”
Also lamenting, the federal lawmaker, Barrister Gyang, said: “The same Fulani we hosted are now carrying arms, killing people in their houses. Berom people can no longer go to their farms because they are being haunted by the Fulani. You can’t go to farm and you can’t sleep in your house. What a hell is this?
“The role of the special task force (STF) in the crisis leaves much to be desired. All the killings are happening under their watch. I don’t know why they are there. I tend to ask myself, is this not the same Nigerain army that went to Liberia and Sierra Leone to rescue the countries from rebels? Why can’t they do the same thing in their own country?
“Are they no longer professional soldiers? Nigerian soldiers had gone out to defend a whole country, but in my constituency, they cannot defend only two local government areas with their presence in Plateau State for years.
“Now look at this scenario: the soldiers are not defending my people, and when the people mobilize themselves to defend their communities, the STF will come and arrest them for defending their communities. When did it become an offence for people to defend themselves?
“In Borno State, the joint task force works with the civilians and they even have the civilian JTF. But here, youths are being arrested for defending their communities. This is frustrating. Why is the case of Plateau and Middle-Belt different?
“Now, half of Berom ancestral land has been taken over forcibly by the Fulani. My argument is, I known the Nigeria constitution makes all of us citizens of the country with the right to live anywhere you chose in this country. But as a citizen, you have to respect the rights and customs of those you met wherever you want to settle.”
However, the Special Task Force (STF) on Jos crisis, code named ‘Operation Safe Haven’, sees it differently. The federal troops are beating their chest for having done well in keeping the violence in the area low.
Spokesman of the STF, Captain Ikedichi Iweha, said in an interview with The Nation:
“Our investigation revealed that the recent violence was provoked with the killing of a Fulani man along Kassa Road by unknown gunmen. It was an ambush attack. The man killed in that attack is a resident of Bisichi.
“After that, two other persons were also attacked and killed in Bisichi village. They were also ambushed by some unknown gunmen. Two Fulanis were on their way to the cattle market in Bukuru but were ambushed by some unknown gunmen. One of them was killed, the second escaped with gunshot wounds.
“The existing suspicion has been that if a Fulani man is the victim of an attack, the Berom is the suspect, and if the victim of an attack is a Berom man, the suspect is automatically Fulani. That was why after the incidents stated above, some gunmen suspected to be Fulani struck and killed four Berom people in Bisichi. Their bodies were recovered by STF. That was how the violence escalated.
“The truth is that both warring factions in Barkin Ladi are armed, but one of them will come out to accuse the other of carrying arms. And it is their possession of arms that encourages attacks and killings with any slight provocation from the other group. But one thing we cannot deny and will not condone is the case where a Fulani would lead his cattle to graze on a farm. We have witnessed some of those cases, and each time we see that we make sure we arrest such a cattle breeder.
“These troubles started within just one week of the resumption of the new commander, Major General Tagbo Ude. But the Commander did not give them a chance. He moved us out to the scene of trouble and that was what saved the situation. It would have been worse without his personal intervention.
“Another truth is that both the Fulani and the Berom are aggressors. Neither of them can claim to be a saint in these killings. When you meet the Berom, they will tell you a juicy story to show that they are innocent. The same story when you meet the Fulani people. But we know that all of them are attackers.”
With that background knowledge of the situation in Barkin Ladi, the commander took his time to talk to leaders of Berom and Fulani. He preached to their youths on peaceful co-existence. As a matter of fact, the Commander was addressing youths in Bisichi village when some gunmen came to attack the village. The soldiers repelled the attack immediately, with the Commander putting up his bullet-proof vest and his headgear because guns were booming.
Iweha said: “The Commander, through some well coordinated intelligence network, foiled several planned attacks in some other villages while we were still trying to address the problems in Bisichi. What happened was that the problem in Bisichi actually had a spiral effect on other villages in the local government as well as in neighboring Riyom Local Government.
“We were very proactive in preventing the planned attack. It would have been the whole of Barkin Ladi on fire, but because we were on ground, we prevented that within that period.
“A strange dimension we had to also take care of was the issue of gunmen blocking the highways to attack motorists and travellers. We saw that happen in this particular violence. Of course, we can’t be here and some hoodlums would take control of the highways. We moved our men there and we had to return road blocks and checkpoints on the bypass from Jos through Bisichi to Mangu. Our men are already stationed there to make sure the highways are free of hoodlums.
“The real problem in Barkin Ladi has become clear: the inhabitants, mostly Fulani and Berom, are scrambling for scarce resources, which is land and water. The business of grazing cows and farming has increased, the population of inhabitants has also increased, but the land in Barkin Ladi Local Government remains the same. Farmers are looking for land to cultivate their crops, cattle breeders are looking for grass and water to feed their cattle. Meanwhile these resources are scarce, so there is bound to be conflict.
“But rather than resolve this issues amicably, the parties are using violence, and this is what we will not tolerate. The STF is more concerned with setting up a mechanism for solving this problem. It must not be through violence. That is what the Commander is preaching to them.”
But Gyang, the member representing Barkin Ladi/Riyom Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, is worried that it is taking the Special Task Force too long to solve the problem in the area. Gyang said: “I am deeply concerned about the whole thing. The issue here is beyond farmers and breeders. In those days, when cattle got into any farm and caused damages to crops, it was amicably settled between the farmer and the owner of the cattle. Compensation for damaged crops are paid and the people co-exist peacefully.
“Nowadays, cattle breeders go grazing with arms. They no longer pay compensation. You can’t even challenge them for grazing on farms. They will pull out their gun and kill you instantly. So what has gone wrong?
“Nowadays, you don’t even know what is happening. Some gunmen will appear and chase people out of their homes and set the houses ablaze. Now people can’t go to farm because they are ambushed and killed by unknown gunmen.
“The federal government, whose constitutional duty it is to protect the lives and properties of citizens, should live up to their responsibility. The impact of the federal government is not felt in my constituency. Gunmen are all over the place and people are being killed like cockroaches. Life has no value here.
“That was why I raised a motion on the floor of the House the other time over the killings in my constituency, and the motion was unanimously passed in the House. The House then described what is going on in my constituency as a terrorist act that should be stopped. But up till now, the killings persist.
“If the STF know that there are arms in the hands of civilians, they should do the needful by mopping up the arms so as to reduce these attacks and killings, because the attacks have left a very huge humanitarian crisis in Plateau State. In the submission I made to President Muhammadu Buhari over the issue, in the last two years, there are 22,000 displaced persons in my constituency, 300 people killed, 38 villages totally sacked by gunmen and more people have been displaced in the recent violence in Bisichi.”
Indeed, the killings in Barkin Ladi have become a nightmare to the entire state. Prof. Hamza Ibrahim said: “I find it difficult to imagine why human beings are being killed like that. I mean, is human life some meaningless and so cheap? Does anyone have the right to take the life of anyone in this country?
“Nigeria is not a lawless country. We have a government. President Buhari should step into this matter. Mr. President should be able to talk to his Fulani kinsmen to stop all this. If not, Nigerians will wake up one morning to discover that the Berom tribe is no more. They are about being wiped out by the Fulani.
“The Fulani want to forcibly occupy Berom land and government should not allow this to happen.”
If the federal government is claiming ignorance of the war of attrition that is going on in Berom land, that cannot be an excuse anymore, considering the peaceful protest staged in Abuja last Tuesday by Plateau people to draw the attention of the visiting United Nations Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, to the issue.
The concerned Plateau people actually delivered a thought-provoking letter to Ki-Moon containing a catalogue of attacks allegedly carried out by Fulani militia as well as its attendant humanitarian concerns. The group later made the content of their letter to Ki-Moon available to newsmen. It reads in part: “We bring you greetings from the traumatised men, women and children from Plateau State. Perhaps we should start this address with a troubling story.
Esther, a 13-year-old girl, is a native of Bangai village in Riyom LGA. Sometime in May 2015, gunmen invaded the calm of her village, sending the young and old scampering for safety, killing defenseless children, including infants.
“In her bid to escape the marauders, Esther fell on a hard object and ruptured her bladder. Determined to live, she dragged herself away from the theatre of blood and tears. Somehow she found herself in one of the Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs) camps. Esther is happy to be alive, but she is now unable to hold urine and unable to go to school. Life has dealt her a terrible blow as a result of the continued attacks.
Esther’s story is a story that reflects the nightmare that has become real to the entire Plateau people: a threat to life and livelihood.
“Permit me, sirs, to give a summary of the nightmare that our lives have become in the past decade. The attacks on Plateau State started over 10 years ago. Things got to a climax on the 10th March 2010 with the Dogo Nahawa massacre, where over 500 men, women and children were slaughtered in a cowardly dawn attack and over 400 people were killed in Kadarko. From then on, we have not known peace. Our tormentors have moved from village to village, killing and burning our houses.
“From May this year, the attacks have increased in frequency and intensity. An average of 10 people are killed every week in Barkin Ladi, Riyom, Bokkos and other places on the Plateau people displaced with about 300 houses razed to rubble. The month of June has also been a nightmare for the people of Barkin Ladi and Riyom. Over 20 villages have been attacked in well-coordinated attacks. In the first 10 days of July, we have witnessed quite a number of attacks already.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a humanitarian crisis in the offing. At the moment, there are over 50,000 internally displaced persons’ (IDPs) stationed in various camps. This number of IDPs would have been higher but for the kindness of individuals and churches who took many families and children into their homes. Additional reports confirmed that from January to date, over 276 persons have been killed while 350 persons escaped death with mortal injuries. At the last count, only this year, about 40 villages have been attacked, many of them totally burn down and destroyed by the attackers. Some of these villages have been attacked more than once.
“The killing of infants, children and women is a tragedy, a nightmare and it should leave a scar on society’s conscience. We have lived with this nightmare for over 10 years. Our people have left their ancestral homes. They have abandoned their farms. Children have left school, and they are cramped in IDP camps with no facilities, no food, no water. The present is bleak, the future holds no promise. This has become our sad reality.
“We want to restate our confidence in the government, both state and national, to resolve this humanitarian crisis and begin to administer healing to our battered and bruised people. We appreciate the effort that the governor of Plateau State, Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong has made in initiating discussions to bring lasting peace, We are confident this effort will bear fruit. We also acknowledge the effort of the Special Task Force in curtailing and forestalling these senseless attacks. We are however worried that the attacks on our people have continued in spite of the heavy presence of the STF. We are convinced that the strategy they have used in containing this crisis needs to be reworked.
“We also note with concern the half-hearted effort by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in providing primary relief to the Internally Displaced Persons. The IDPs live in squalor and want, and are only able to survive by the donations of kindhearted individuals, churches and corporate citizens. We understand NEMA’s handicap, but this situation is urgently important.”
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