Herdsmen attacks: FG urged to seek permanent solution

As the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the April 25 suspected herdsmen attacks on Nimbo community, Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State, began its sitting last Monday, the Federal Government has been called upon to go beyond the inquiry and look at ways of permanently resolving the herdsmen issue to forestall future occurrence.

This is as reports emerged Wednesday that residents of Nimbo were again fleeing home following fresh alarm that Fulani herdsmen had returned to the area, allegedly raping no fewer than six women.

Igwe John Ikemefuna Akor, traditional ruler of the community, was quoted to have told Nsukka General Assembly during the group’s visit to his palace that the community was living in fresh fear of an imminent herdsmen attack.

“We are glad you people are here today to also share our present fear. For the past two days, our people have not been going to farm as Fulani herdsmen have taken over the entire farm in Nimbo community destroying farmlands and threatening to unleash more terror. Some of our people who saw them said they told them that they were back to unleash more terror with more sophisticated weapons. The herdsmen chased them away and ushered their cattle into the farm. Since then, many people have left the village because they are afraid that more disastrous attack would happen at any time. We have called the Divisional Police Officer in charge of this area and he said they did not have fuel in their vehicle,” he was quoted to have said.

In subsequent reports, however, Igwe Akor, the Enugu State Police Command as well as leaders of the Fulani community in the state were said to have debunked the earlier reports, saying herdsmen were not back to the community, nobody was raped, and that there had been no further threat to peace in the area since the April 25 incident.

Igwe Akor also reportedly explained that though soldiers keeping the peace in the area had left the community, there was still a heavy presence of police personnel all over the community.

These clarifications notwithstanding, some Nigerians who spoke to BDSUNDAY insisted that the government must do more to ensure that the menace of marauding herdsmen is put under permanent control and that Nigerians’ fear of the herdsmen is permanently allayed.

“It is said that there is no smoke without fire, so we cannot just dismiss the fresh report with a wave of the hand. But even if we accept that the herdsmen have not actually returned to Nimbo, is there a possibility that they could return? If we take the Agatu case as a model, we can see that these murderers are capable of launching further attacks over and over,” said Ade Adebayo, a Lagos-based legal practitioner.

“Rather than dwell on the veracity or otherwise of that report, I think the Federal Government should get serious with resolving the issue permanently. The other time we read that the federal and state governments had resolved that only modern ranches, and not the so-called grazing reserves, would solve the incessant farmers/herdsmen clashes, so let them get to work already,” he added.

Meanwhile, condemnation continues to trail the manner in which President Muhammadu Buhari has handled the matter of the herdsmen, whose activities have been described as perhaps the most dangerous threat to safety of lives and property in the country and who have been classified by a global report as the world’s fourth most lethal ‘terrorist group’ measured by number of people killed.

Following series of attacks on Agatu communities in Benue State and the attack on Nimbo community in Enugu State, which led to massive loss of lives and property, many had expected the president to be presidential enough, visit the scenes of the carnage, stamp his feet of authority on the ground, condemn the attacks and declare a war on the criminals, whoever they were.

But the president, who had maintained an ominous silence on the issue for too long, neither neither visited the scenes nor spoke directly to Nigerians. He spoke by proxy – first, through Lai Mohammed, information and culture minister, at the public presentation of a book authored by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu; and then through a statement signed by Garba Shehu, presidential spokesperson – reportedly condemning the attacks and ordering security chiefs to secure areas where the suspected killer herdsmen were functioning and also go after the herdsmen. This action also elicited further reactions from Nigerians.

“So it’s the standard rule now for the president to speak by proxy on a raging national issue that deserves a national presidential broadcast to address? Let’s stop deceiving ourselves; PMB hasn’t said anything on the threat of the Fulani herdsmen to our national security. You don’t handle such issues by proxy,” said an online commenter, who simply identified himself as Ike.

The conspicuous omission of the issue in the president’s first anniversary cum Democracy Day broadcast on May 29, 2016 further drew the ire of Nigerians who condemned in strong terms the president’s kid-gloves handling of such a deadly matter that was capable of setting the nation on fire.

“In the broadcast’s 2,624 words, not once did he mention the words Fulani herdsmen, let alone address the real and present danger they constitute to Nigeria’s continued existence as one political entity,” said Chuks Iloegbunam, a veteran journalist.

“Was this unfortunate omission because he is himself of the Fulani ethnic group? Or was it because he considers a final stop to have been put to the herdsmen’s murderous rampaging throughout the country? Or is it because the destructive army is a law unto itself, above censure and sanction?” he queried.

Fulani herdsmen have taken the lives of more Nigerians than Boko Haram in 2016, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

CHUKS OLUIGBO