Fulani herdsmen’s mindless Agatu killings – Punch

The deadly escapades of arms-bearing marauders suspected to be Fulani herdsmen are becoming increasingly unsettling. They have left their sanguinary footmark in practically every part of the country that has had the misfortune of receiving them in their seemingly unstoppable march, ostensibly, in search of pastures to graze their cattle. In their latest outing, they have been very unsparing of the host communities. They have rendered some villages in Benue State a gaping wound, spewing forth a river of human blood.
No immediate reasons have been proffered for the latest attacks. Neither has anybody been able to give the precise number of people killed; but reports say it has been in their hundreds. The account of Paul Ede, who coordinated the coalition of civil society groups that visited the National Assembly last week to protest the latest killings in Agatu Local Government Area of Benue State, claimed that 400 persons lost their lives in that orgy of violence. However, the Commissioner of Police, Benue State Command, Paul Yakadi, who visited the villages, was quoted as saying that only “three corpses were seen in Aila and Adagbo.”
Very heart-rending, however, was the account of the police chief, who recounted how the villages were razed to the ground and emptied of their original inhabitants only to be taken over by heavily armed Fulani herdsmen and about 5,000 cattle. Since when did it become the norm for unauthorised persons to be going about “heavily armed”? In a situation where the heinous crime of sacking whole communities was committed – about 7,000 people were said to have fled their homes – how come it did not occur to the commissioner that the heavily armed men he saw at the crime scene were the first suspects, who should be taken in for questioning?
Once again, the events in Benue have demonstrated that human lives do not matter in Nigeria. In the usual Nigerian fashion, it will not be surprising if nobody is ever made to account for the massacre in Benue State. This was exactly what happened in 2013 when over 10 Department of State Service men and 74 mobile policemen were waylaid and slaughtered in broad daylight in Nasarawa State. The only response from the then head of the security agency, Ita Ekpenyong, was that the culprits, by the name of Ombatse Cult group, had been forgiven. Where in the civilised world is a society run in that manner?
As is usual when such attacks occur, there were no security men in Agatu to protect the victims, most of them women and children. The invaders reportedly crossed over from Loco and Doma in nearby Nasarawa State and sacked seven villages, namely Okokolo, Aila, Adagbo Akwu, Omikuidi, Ocholonya and Odugbeho. Yet, for the length of time the onslaught lasted, no security men came to the rescue of the victims. This is an indictment of the nature of policing in place in the country today. But 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, the Fulani, whose stock cuts across many countries in the West African sub-region, have transformed into an arms-bearing fighting force, leaving a trail of destruction wherever they go. At a time when the country is seriously concerned about her huge food import bill, the Fulani empty their cattle into cultivated farmland and are ready to kill and maim whoever dares to challenge them. It is even suggested that most of those who carry out the killings are not Nigerians, but imported fighters, who quickly find their way out of the country once they accomplish their deadly mission.
No thanks to the activities of the Fulani, Nigeria now boasts a worse terrorism record than Somalia, a failed state. According to the 2015 Global Terrorism Index, which identifies the Fulani militants as a terrorist group, only Iraq and Afghanistan suffered worse terror attacks than Nigeria in 2014. Of the 20 deadliest terror attacks globally in 2014, nine occurred in Nigeria, with Boko Haram, which overtook the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria as the deadliest terror group, taking credit for eight. The ninth, an attack in Galadima, which claimed over 200 lives, was attributed to Fulani herdsmen. While Boko Haram attacks claimed 6,644 lives, Fulani militants, named as the fourth deadliest in the world, were responsible for 1,229 lives.
In a similar attack on another Agatu village of Egba last year, reports put the death toll at 90, while the then Commissioner of Police, Hyacinth Dagala, claimed 30 corpses were recovered. It was an attack that took the victims by surprise, starting at 4am, when they were fast asleep. Four years ago, a serving senator, Gyang Dantong, and the Majority Leader of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Gyang Fulani, were among those killed when suspected Fulani herdsmen struck at a funeral ceremony for the mass burial of an earlier batch of their victims. Over 60 people, mostly children, women and the aged, who had sought safety within the sanctuary of a church, had been reportedly killed the previous day. It brought to over 100 the number of those killed in two days.
The recent attacks bring to the fore the futility of continuing with the current policing system. It offers a compelling reason to seek the state police option. Besides, the security agents will be making a mistake to think that only Boko Haram, which also calls itself the Islamic State of West African Province, deserves the attention of the Nigerian military. Such disposition has given room for other groups to embark on a killing binge. The security agents should be alert to terror attacks wherever they occur in the country.