With the rainy season rapidly approaching, there are justifiable fears that unless drastic measures are taken by concerned authorities, horror may yet visit residents of Agatu Local Government Area in Benue State as the communities are overrun by intense hunger and homelessness, an aftermath of a ferocious arms attack by gangs suspected to be Fulani herdsmen.
Most residents of Agatu communities are currently without a roof over their heads as majority of the houses in the communities are roofless, with some buildings already collapsing due to impact of fire, BDSUNDAY on-the-spot assessment of the situation reveals. BDSUNDAY counted over 500 buildings that are currently roofless –mud huts of different sizes and block houses including magnificent storey buildings, clinics, churches and school buildings. Only mosques seemed to have spared by the assailants in the attacks which residents say lasted for seven days.
Out of the 10 council wards in Agatu LGA visited by BDSUNDAY, only one ward was not affected in the bloody attacks.
With most of the buildings now without roofs, residents of Agatu are having a difficult time dealing with the extreme hot temperature that is characteristic of that part of the country at this time of the year. At night, they sleep in open spaces using insecticide-treated nets provided for them by Benue State government, concerned citizens and former Senate President David Mark under whose senatorial district Agatu falls. Some of the residents also retire to school buildings that are lucky to be standing. The worst affected in the whole ugly affair are the elderly, women and children.
But the impact on children in the affected areas is double-edged as all the children whose school buildings were affected are at the moment out of school and homeless. In all the wards visited, children were seen either playing street football during school hours or idling away under trees, mostly with no home to return to after play. A headmaster of one of the schools razed down told BDSUNDAY that over 95 percent of children in the affected areas and their parents are currently homeless.
Apart from the loss of lives, residents who spoke with BDSUNDAY equally lament loss of other valuables to the attacks. These include wedding albums and certificates, pension documents, birth certificates, bank documents, land documents, monthly monetary contribution records, among others that were completely burnt down with the buildings.
The recent fuel crisis in the country has also worsened the hardship faced by the communities as the residents lament that high cost of transportation is preventing them from taking the few available farm produce to markets where they can be sold.
Some analysts have said that given that Benue State is regarded as ‘Food Basket of the Nation’, the current hike in prices of some farm produce in the country may not be completely divorced from the Agatu crisis.
The crisis reportedly started on March 5, 2016 after Agatu residents, who are mostly farmers, accused the herdsmen of destroying their crops with indiscriminate movements of cows and the herdsmen on their part alleged that about 10,000 of their cattle had been killed by Agatu residents.
Anebi Samson, spokesperson for one of the communities in Agatu, narrated to BDSUNDAY how heavily-armed herdsmen descended on the communities from all directions and residents had to flee due to the fierceness of the attackers, giving the attackers unrestrained latitude to unleash such destruction of horrendous magnitude.
“It took the Fulani herdsmen just one week to unleash this terror you are seeing. For the first attack, they came around 8pm; in the second attack, they came around 5-6pm; in the third attack, they came around 12pm; then in the fourth attack, they came around 4-5pm. But the fifth day was most gruesome. They came early in the morning and attacked till evening without restraint. They were heavily armed,” he said.
According to him, when the attack started the first day, Agatu residents cried to the local government authority, security agents and the state governor but none responded until lives were lost and property destroyed by the rampaging herdsmen.
“First of all, we cried to the caretaker chairman of Agatu Local Government at Obagaji but we didn’t hear anything from him. It is difficult to really know the agenda of these herdsmen. We know they want to claim our land from us. But they can’t take our land from us; this land belongs to our forefathers. We cried to the governor but he didn’t respond until the damage had been done. I was left wondering if the governor was in support of the Fulani. Governor Samuel Ortom and his counterpart in Nasarawa are the ones who gave Fulani power to attack us. Governor Ortom came and said he was sorry, but it was his fault,” Samson said.
Saidu Magaji, a deputy community head, told BDSUNDAY that the attack was the second of such in the history of Agatu as a local government, having occurred three years ago. He accused both the Nasarawa and Benue State governments of aiding the attacks, saying the government officials knew all the routes the herdsmen were coming from to attack and did nothing about it.
“They came here and started shooting anyhow; no policemen, no soldiers. We went to report to the chairman of the local government but he didn’t show up. If government officials had responded timely the herdsmen would not have been able to carry out this damage you are now seeing. There was enough time for them to burn the whole houses you are seeing. As they burnt our houses, so they also burnt our farms. As we are now, to eat is a problem; where to sit or sleep is a problem; you can see it for yourself. This is how we are outside like goats,” he said.
The 93-year-old Magaji, who said he is a retired soldier, informed that the Fulani herdsmen had at one time or the other raped housewives and young girls in Agatu before the escalation of the current crisis which has resulted in the deaths of many residents.
“Many who could not handle the loss of their property have started dying. What are we going to do? We the elders are going round trying to encourage our people because there is nothing we can do. Only God can judge this, we don’t have the power. We are crying to both the local, state and federal governments to help us by looking into the matter. The cloth I am wearing now was given to me by someone and so is everyone here. We have nothing left. All my documents were lost,” he said.
Magaji explained that residents were gradually returning to the communities following the increasing presence of policemen and soldiers, saying that without the uniformed men, no resident would have had the guts to return. He cited the example of a day the herdsmen returned for more attacks after the visiting state governor had left.
He told BDSUNDAY that David Mark had been very helpful in providing relief materials for the homeless Agatu residents and in drawing the attention of the federal government to the plight of the people.
Mark, who had gone on an impact assessment tour of the ravaged communities along with some National and State Assembly members from his Benue South constituency, had urged security operatives to do all that is needed to bring the perpetrators to book, saying that the attacks could not have happened by accident because they bore the marks of a planned and orchestrated genocide against the residents.
The former Senate president had also distributed relief materials that included mattresses, bags of rice, salt, Indomie noodles, clothes and toiletries to the survivors through John Ngbede, a former commissioner in the state, BDSUNDAY learnt.
“Also, the day David Mark came here it was the same thing. Immediately he left the Fulani came back and started shooting. There was no security men at that time as we now have. Although residents have started returning, to eat and bathe are big issues here. If help doesn’t come to us fast, people will start dying as a result of the absence of necessities of life,” Magaji said.
“David Mark has really tried for us. He was here immediately after the attacks. It was Mark that brought the governor here to see for himself. We even heard that he has taken the matter of our wellbeing to court and has also met with President Buhari. It was his intervention that woke the president from slumber. He has really tried for us, but we are begging him not to forget us now,” he said.
BDSUNDAY can also confirm that men of the Nigeria Police and soldiers are effectively on ground guarding the areas. But the aftermath of the attacks poses greater challenges to the residents as regards human dignity, loss of sources of livelihood, and shelter.
When asked what the communities were doing to coordinate themselves as a voice to seek collective help from both the federal and state governments, Mogaji said they had submitted their names and property destroyed as requested by state government officials who visited the place for impact assessment.
“We have written our names and property destroyed and submitted to officials of the local government who were here on the directive of the state government. The federal government also promised to build barracks for us here. I am only asking my people not to worry because hopefully, help will come. We are asking those who are still afraid to return to the fold. But our fear now is that the rainy season is here. How are we going to cope with our children and women outside? No place to sleep. Once it is night, some of us go to sleep in the few primary schools the herdsmen didn’t destroy. That is how we gather ourselves like sands, men, women and children alike,” he said.
Ajumi Anebi, a 65-year-old mother whose son was killed in the attacks, told BDSUNDAY that although she was lucky to be alive, the current homeless situation was making life extremely unbearable for her and her grandchildren whose parents died in the attacks.
“After they destroyed our houses, the Fulani herdsmen shifted to our farmlands and destroyed our crops. Those who were at the farm were chased away; wives who could not run fast were caught and raped. They carried our farm produce and burnt the rest, killing over 50 residents in the process. Now we are hungry and homeless. This is what will eventually kill us if something is not done fast,” she said through an interpreter.
In Akwu, another Agatu community, Sunday Shuaibu told BDSUNDAY that the destruction was enormous because residents were taken by surprise since they never prepared for such ferocious attacks and that the only thing on the minds of residents was to run for safety instead of attempting to stop the herdsmen from setting their houses ablaze.
But Vincent Anteyin, head of another community, said the plight of the residents had become very maddening and awful and that relief items earlier brought by the state government were grossly inadequate to ameliorate the sufferings currently facing the residents.
“We are all sleeping outside. In the night we will bring the mosquito nets out to sleep. The relief materials coming here at the moment are completely inadequate compared to the situation on ground. We will be very happy if NGOs, private individuals, state and federal governments can come to our rescue. My own people are still outside. If you go to the farm it’s even worse; no single cassava is standing. The Fulani cows overran all of them. The cows levelled everything,” he said.
He informed BDSUNDAY that when coming for attack, the Fulani herdsmen usually came through the Tiv/Nasarawa routes, via Okokoro, but stressed that security has really improved in the areas.
“There are several soldiers and policemen on ground here. The security men are very strategically positioned. But our pain is not about security. It is about our survival. Our every means of staying alive have been taken away from us. Many people were killed here. But our challenge now is staying alive,” he said.
But Agatu residents appear divided on whether the attacks have religious colouration or not. While some say it has religious undertone, others believe the contrary. The different in this standpoint is borne out of the fact that mosques were spared while churches were visited with horror during the attacks.
BDSUNDAY investigation revealed that while two mosques at different locations were spared by the attackers, more expensive church buildings and individual residences in the same locations were tragically razed down with the perpetrators desecrating one of the altars belong to a Catholic Church.
“If the herdsmen don’t believe in a god they would not have spared mosques while burning down church buildings. You can see this for yourself. How do you explain this kind of situation where newer and more expensive buildings were burnt down in the same area but a mosque was left untouched? These herdsmen are highly religious,” said Obochi Abraham, a community leader.
The sorrow in Enugu
While the tears were still flowing in Agatu communities, residents of Nimbo community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State received a similar baptism of fire and blood.
The attack on Nimbo, which was a midnight raid, left over 45 residents dead, including a serving National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, elderly men, women and children, while several houses including two churches were burnt down.
When BDSUNDAY visited Nimbo, it was observed that a church building belonging to Christ Holy Church International (also known as Odozi Obodo) was burnt down completely. Also, the official car of the parish pastor, generating set, as well as several cars were vandalised and set on fire.
A survivor of the Nimbo attack, who did not want his name in print, told BDSUNDAY that the dastardly act, an all-night raid, took many residents unawares as they had either gone to church for vigil or slept innocently in their houses that fateful night.
“It was a terrible night. Going by the death toll, they obviously started the killing earlier than we knew. As at the time the governor came here, dead bodies were still being brought from the spot where they were killed. My elder brother was killed in the attack and two of his children are among those receiving treatment in hospital,” he said.
According to him, like in Agatu and other Nigerian communities where the herdsmen allegedly committed crime against women and children, there were also cases of raping of housewives and young girls.
“There are things you cannot cover up in Igboland. When another man sleeps with a married woman it is an abomination in our land. There have been cases of raping of married women here. Because such a thing is an abomination here, our women won’t confess it until we start finding it out. Our young girls have been raped too by these herdsmen. If Buhari is truly president of all Nigerians, he must not allow this to continue,” he said, tears cascading down his cheeks.
John Orajiaka, assistant pastor, Christ Holy Church International, Nimbo, gave an eyewitness account to BDSUNDAY.
According to Orajiaka, around 6:30 am on the 25th of April, as church members started returning home after morning prayers, it was discovered that the herdsmen were unleashing mayhem on residents.
“We discovered that people started returning back to the church shouting and crying, saying the Fulani are here. We started hearing gunshots. When I came out properly, I saw a group of men wearing various attires facing this church. They were more than 30 in number. One of the members of my church told me, ‘Pastor you should run now; these are the Fulani herdsmen killing everywhere these days’. That was when I began to run with my bible,” he narrated.
“So, we ran towards the hill and the herdsmen ran after us. They were with several guns and machetes. After climbing the hill and they could not get us, they started firing at us but their bullets did not meet any of us by the grace of God. But several others were killed here,” he added.
The pastor, who noted that he was three months old in the Enugu community at the time of this interview, narrated that Nimbo residents had complained of having frequent disputes with the Fulani herdsmen over indiscriminate passage through their farmlands and the resultant destruction of tender crops.
“Nimbo residents also reported that the Fulani herdsmen were raping their women in the bush. Even in the far bush, they have succeeded in chasing the residents away from the area. Residents who were not so lucky are the ones now dead. Their remains have been deposited at different mortuaries across the state. Those who survived with varying degrees of injuries are also being treated in these hospitals with assistance of the state governor,” he said.
The cleric, who gave kudos to both the state and federal governments for improved security arrangement in Nimbo following the attack, said residents still remain in the community because of the intervention of policemen and the soldiers.
“Even those of us who ran into the bush would not have survived had the security men not arrived on time. The herdsmen would have pursued us far into the bush. But they ran when the police came and started shooting. The security men really tried. Even the IG of Police was here himself. Since then, the soldiers and the police have been patrolling the community, although people are still afraid that the herdsmen may return. But security men are doing their best,” he said.
Speaking with BDSUNDAY in his palace in Nimbo, Eze John Ikemefuna Akor, Agaba Idu-24 of Nimbo, said the atrocity of the Fulani herdsmen in many Nigerian communities had become unbearable and were capable of splitting the country if actions were not taken by concerned authorities to find lasting solution.
“Why should this type of thing be allowed to continue unchecked? But whatever the government can do to resolve the issue should be supported by all Nigerians. The Fulani herdsmen are also Nigerians. My only concern now is that there should be peace,” he said.
When asked to comment on the Grazing Reserve Bill currently before the Senate, he said: “Going forward, I don’t think taking other people’s lands and handing them to the Fulani cow-breeders is in the interest of everybody. The federal lawmakers who do not buy into this Bill should speak out now rather than remain silent. They should support only bills that are for the general good of Nigerians. If FG gives people’s land to the herdsmen, how do you compensate the owners of the land across the country?”
Speaking on Nigeria’s cattle-rearing system, he said going by the killings and destruction of property by herdsmen, the time was ripe for the country to embrace the method of countries like the US, Netherlands and other European nations who are in business of breeding healthy cattle.
“In the civilized world where they breed healthy cattle, they don’t move cows from one far end of the county to another far end. The people who are into cattle business in Nigeria should learn from their counterparts in the West. You don’t need to move cows about and destroy lives and property to be in business. In the West, they get a place for their cows and take grass to them there. They have ranches where cows are kept because it is a multi-billion dollar business. I think we certainly can learn from them. If we have ranches for these herdsmen and their cows, I think we can bring the situation under control,” he said.
Eze Akor lamented that Nigeria’s retention of a medieval way of cattle business was a clear pointer that Nigeria lags behind in terms of policy formulation.
“Something should be done about this policy before it’s too late. With the way the herdsmen are killing in almost all the communities they are now, the government must do something very fast. President Buhari should act fast before activities of Fulani herdsmen spilt Nigeria. Remember the Boko Haram issue started like this! These Fulani herdsmen issue should be handled with utmost urgency so that it doesn’t degenerate to something more than us. Should this continue it is capable of splitting Nigeria in the future,” he said.
He also advised that aside from providing ranches for the herdsmen, they also need orientation on the value of human lives, adding that the herdsmen’s nomadic lifestyle can become a huge problem than it is now if not properly handled by the federal government.
“We have a huge problem before us but it can be surmounted. Although I am not satisfied with the FG’s slow response to the issue, I still give them kudos for the recent efforts. The whole areas are now secured. The Enugu State government has also been very handy in helping us to quickly recover from the attack. We are expecting more from them,” he said.
Olabisi Kolawole, Nigerian Police Force Headquarters spokesperson, was not available for comments on how many arrests have been made since Solomon Arase, the Inspector General of Police, set up a special investigative team to look into the Nimbo killings. As at the time of filing in this report, she had yet to reply the text message sent to her on the subject.
The IG had immediately after the Enugu attack announced a deployment of a high-powered squad to investigate the killing of some residents by suspected herdsmen and promised that any person found to have been directly or indirectly involved would face the full wrath of the law.
But Christiana Yisau, a psychologist, told BDSUNDAY that compensation should be paid to immediate families, and there should be on-the-spot rehabilitation of schools, houses, roads and various facilities destroyed by the herdsmen.
She recommended that the herdsmen be immediately relocated from the affected communities, permanent military posts set up, major roads rehabilitated for easy access by military personnel, and relief materials donated to those directly affected by the crisis.
When contacted via telephone, Femi Adesina, special adviser, Media and Publicity to President Buhari, said, “We are attending a summit in London. The president is not around as you may already be aware. I will respond to your questions when we return.”
But Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, told BDSUNDAY in an interview that the FG is fully aware of the plight of victims of suspected herdsmen attacks, particularly those in Agatu and Nimbo.
“The FG has already ordered the military, the police and the Civil Defence to fish out the perpetuators. The FG is not quiet on the matter. Plans are underway to ensure that this kind of attacks do not continue in the country. The FG will not fold its hands and watch any group unleash violence on innocent citizens,” Mohammed said.
He explained that the Buhari administration is doing all it can within the ambit of the law to protect the lives and property of Nigerians throughout the length and breadth of the country.
“What happened in Agatu is unfortunate but the government will not abandon the people. The FG will collaborate with both local and state governments in the affected areas to assist the people. The FG, through security agents, is working towards restoring peace and harmony and peaceful co-existence to these communities. We are trying to diagnose the remote causes of these problems,” he said.
NATHANIEL AKHIGBE
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
