Herdsmen under the banner of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) have alleged that Benue and Taraba states, among other groups, were sponsoring hate campaigns and arming ethnic militia to kill their members.
According to the National Secretary of MACBAN, Usman Ngeljarma, “While as a body we are not against any law that can engender peace, create societal harmony and stability, we cannot oblige any self-centred regulation with primordial sentiments based on injustice, intolerance and infringement of people’s fundamental rights.
“It is no longer hidden that some state governments are sponsoring ethnic militia against our people, recruiting and arming locals to kill our people and rustle their livestock as seen recently in Benue and Taraba states.”
He noted that on Friday, it was reported that a Tiv militia gang arrested in Taraba State by the army confessed that over 1,000 of them were recruited and armed by the Benue State Government to kill Fulani herdsmen.
“The activities of these criminal gangs are putting our people in unbearable pains as they operate with the greatest impunity under the protection of the state governments,” he said.
Ngeljarma asked the Federal Government to reject the idea of labelling MACBAN as a terrorist organisation.
He said some of the states asking the Federal Government to deploy security personnel to tackle the crisis were actually planning on using the security agents for selfish and political reasons.
Ngeljarma said over 1,000 Fulani had been killed in the last one year, but no one had been brought to book.
The MACBAN secretary added, “Only very recently, we lost over 1,000 people, including children, women and the aged and over two million cattle to these gangs. We are more disturbed today as this state government (Benue) hides under the self created crises and blackmails the Federal Government into releasing to them security operatives to achieve their illegal and wicked agenda against our people.”
He said it was unfortunate that the pastoralist community which had been the main target of the offensive was also deliberately being fingered as the attackers at the same time.
Ngeljarma said MACBAN remained a non-violent organisation, but admitted that there were some bad eggs among them.
The MACBAN secretary maintained that the current crisis was fuelled by the anti-grazing law implemented by some states.
He said, “The current situation in our opinion is fuelled by the draconian laws put in place by some state governments with the singular aim of chasing our people out of the states for ethnic hatred.
“The anti-open grazing law in Benue, Taraba and other states is nothing more than a symbol of intolerance and does not in any way intend to solve the farmers/grazers conflict as the livestock breeders interest is neither captured in the law nor in its implementation mechanism.”
The MACBAN secretary said the crisis, which started as communal clashes had metamorphosed into a coordinated operation to exterminate herdsmen, especially in Plateau, Benue, Taraba and Adamawa states; and Southern Kaduna.
He said the trend of attacks on herdsmen by ethnic militias oiled by a deliberate profiling through coordinated media campaigns against the pastoralists was a crime against humanity.
Ngeljarma added, “Let me refresh your memories on the unprovoked attack on the Fulani communities on the Mambilla Plateau in Taraba State. The attack, which took place around June last year on sedentary pastoralist Fulani families, who have practised the much deceitfully advocated ranching for decades, left about 700 people killed, over 20,000 cattle rustled or killed and over 300 communities burnt down.
“In Lau (Taraba State), 24 Fulani were also killed. In Numan, Adamawa State, about 82 of our women and children were slaughtered in cold blood by Bachama militias. In Kajuru, Kaduna State, 96 were killed.
“All these were committed in a span of seven months, beginning from June 2017 to January, 2018. All the killings were done by ethnic groups who see themselves as indigenes and the Fulani as marauders.”
