We are deeply perturbed by the
escalating conflicts between heavily-armed cattle herdsmen and indigenous
communities, especially in the four geopolitical zones of North Central, South
East, South West and South-South.
We have raised the alarm several
times on this issue. Our voice has resonated with those of countless other
Nigerians in the swelling chorus of calls on the Federal Government to
frontally and immediately mobilise the Nigerian armed forces to arrest the
menace of these gunmen.
From the plains of Plateau, Nasarawa
and southern parts of Kaduna States, these armed desperados have increased in
numbers, pouring southward into Oyo, Ekiti, Ondo, Osun, Ogun, Benue, Taraba,
Kogi, Enugu, Abia, Anambra, Delta, Edo and parts of Rivers States.
They brazenly herd their livestock
into people’s farmlands and threaten them with their deadly weapons at the
slightest sign of protest. Some of them even go beyond that and engage in
criminal ventures such as kidnapping, armed robbery, murders and rape.
They sometimes block the highways
and inflict life-threatening injuries on their victims. The worst part of it
all is that, as in the case of Agatu in Benue State, they drive indigenous
people from their communities and occupy same in a fashion reminiscent of
medieval conquests.
Even more worrisome still is the
fact that these gunmen openly brandish their sophisticated weapons and very
little is done by the law-enforcement agencies to enforce the law prohibiting
the illegal possession of unlicensed firearms which the rest of the society is
strictly bound to observe.
We admit that this menace has been
there for over a decade, but what was seen as isolated cases of infractions has
ballooned in scale and thrust in the past one year, with the law enforcement
agencies showing a singular lack of interest to confront it.
Fulani herdsmen have cohabited
peacefully with their host communities and land-owners in all parts of the
country for ages. Why the sudden upsurge of invasions and violent criminalities
among these gangs of “herdsmen”?
We, once again, call on the Federal
Government to order a crackdown on this menace in the same manner that Boko
Haram, the Shiites, Biafra agitators, pipeline vandals and others have been
militarily confronted.-
We hope this is done quickly to
avoid matters getting to a breaking point where communities might be forced to
raise their own respective militias for the defence of their homelands. The
security agencies must wake up, do their jobs and head off possible outbreak of
anarchy in Nigeria.
Source: Vanguard
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