₦airaland Forum

Fulani herdsmen
versus host communities

DURING the week, attacks by Fulani herdsmen made headlines again in the newspapers. On Tuesday, at Ofagbe community, Isoko North Local Government Area, Delta State, herdsmen reportedly killed a man and wounded another who identified himself as Thompson Ogege.

On Wednesday, suspected Fulani attacked Amoji in Delta State and abducted no fewer than four persons according to a community leader, Emmanuel Odili.

On the same day, a gang of youths attacked and razed down Suwa and Burukutu in Lamurde local government area of Adamawa State. The assailants were said to be well-armed Fulani herdsmen.

In November last year, an armed group alleged to be Fulani herdsmen reportedly attacked nine different communities in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi and killed twenty-two people.

A month before, women from four local government areas in Enugu State, called on the state government to save them from Fulani herdsmen who regularly molest, maim, rape and destroy their farmland and livestock.

The abduction of elder statesman and former Presidential candidate, Chief Olu Falae on his farm at Ilado, Akure Ondo state by Fulani herdsman in September 2015 may have scaled up the national attention to the menace of attack by herdsmen. The herdsmen abducted and released the 77–year old man later after paying an undisclosed amount as ransom.

These incidents are a fraction of the incidents of attack attributed to Fulani herdsmen across the country.

According to a report published by SMB Intelligence, over 2,000 people have been killed in conflicts between the herdsmen and different host communities in 2015 alone. In comparison, the Boko Haram insurgency that has attracted the attention of the Nigerian government and global community, kills 2,500 people annually, the report states.

Recall that in 2000, the Fulani herdsmen and farmers had a major clash in Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State, which led to a visit by delegation from Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) to the office of the then governor, the late Lam Adesina.

In Benue State, not less than seven local government areas including Guma, Gwer-west, Logo, Agatu, Kwande, Gwer- east and Katsina- Ala were destroyed in the fight between herdsmen and farmers. In fact, there were persistent attack between herdsmen and farmers in Agatu, Ado, Ohimini and other parts of the State. The Fulani herders attacks reached its height in the State during the last quarter of governor Gabriel Suswam because herders from the north eastern states of Nigeria migrated to the state in droves and in turn began to unleash terror on the inhabitants, according to the people’s account.

A few years ago, about 10 youths who were returning home after the one-year compulsory National Youth Services Corps (NYSC) lost their lives in a ghastly auto-crash caused by unguided herd of cattle along Owo Expressway.

At Oro-Ago, in Ifelodun LGA of Kwara State, the Fulanis and their hosts had once clashed and two people were confirmed dead at the end of the hostility.

Alapa town in Asa LGA of the state also was not left out of the tragic incident.

Speaking on the relationship between the cattle rustlers and University of Ilorin, the Deputy Director Information of the institution, Kule Akogun said, “In the past, some of our staff while returning home at the close of work were sporadically attacked by the suspected cattle rustlers robbing them of their belongings in the process.

“Promptly, the University authorities reacted to this by engaging the services of many local vigilante to complement the efforts of our staff security. By 6pm they are at work combing the major roads leading into the campus.”

Akogun added that the last incursion into the campus by the rustlers was during the tenure of the immediate past Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Ishiaq Oloyede. “He (Oloyede) rose to the occasion and since then, there has never been another attack.”

Speaking on the menace of Fulani herdsmen, the President of Akure Youth Coalition, Adekanbi Oluwatuyi, said herdsmen continuously harass and intimidate people of the State on their farmland by forcibly entering into their farmlands and feed the cattle.

“They descend on anyone who dares challenge or query their actions,” he said.

Onuwaje Eniola an indigene of Ugbonla, in Ilaje Local Government Area, corroborated Oluwatuyi’s statement. The herdsmen are usually hostile to their hosts whenever they try to stop them from littering their compound or the surrounding with cow dung and faeces, he said.

Speaking in defence of the herdsmen, the Secretary of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association in Kwara State, Alhaji Usman Adamu said, a Fulani cattle rearer see his herd of cattle as his shop.

“He doesn’t have any other means of livelihood and so would want to defend his source of daily income. When he has no cattle under his control due to attacks, he is angry and would naturally think of the way out which in some cases is to vent his spleen on others.”

He added, “Cattle-rearing is our lives because a Fulani man is first thought of as a cattle breeder. Some of us go into animal husbandry mainly to grow food. The proceeds from sales of diary products are the only sources of income of a Fulani man.”

As a way of preventing the recurring tragedies between herders and farmers, several interventions have been made at different levels.
One of such is the recommendation by the 2014 National Conference. The delegates at the conference resolved that nomadic cattle rearing should be stopped; instead, the delegates recommended that ranches for cattle should be established across the country.

The former Governor of Kano State and Minister of Education, Alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau during a solidarity visit to Falae in his residence in Akure, the Ondo State capital city, shortly after the release of the latter, said there is need for social justice.

Shekarau noted that the absence of social justice was responsible for the animosity between the Fulani herdsmen and their hosts. He urged the government at all levels to institute well-defined grazing routes so as to curtail the recurrent crises with the cattle breeders.

Recently, governor Abiola Ajimobi expressed worries over frequent clashes between farmers and Fulani cattle rearers, saying that his administration would find a lasting solution to the crises. Part of the solutions, he said, was the proposed setting up of the committee, which would ensure that there is peaceful co-existence among the people, particularly those from the rural areas. The governor also said that grazing routes would be established in some rural areas in the state to assist cattle rearers in feeding their animals without tampering with the crops planted by farmers.

The intervention of Arewa leaders in the incessant clashes has also assisted in dousing the growing tension between the two groups in the region.

The Chairman, Arewa Chiefs in Southern Nigeria and the Seriki Hausa in Shasha, Oyo State, Alhaji Haruna Katsina had met with the leadership of the Fulani herdsmen and pleaded with them on the need to respect their host for peace to reign.

This was sequel to series of clashes between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in Oyo North senatorial district forcing the state House of Assembly to inaugurate a committee to douse the tension.

The Hausa leader had urged the Fulani herdsmen to maintain peace, respect their neighbors, and respect law and government to engender peace in the state. Katsina said observing the laws of the land and respect for the host community will prevent conflict from escalating to violence saying the region will not allow the terrible condition being witnessed in the North to rear its head in southern Nigeria.

The Seriki Shasha who is the Chairman of the Arewa Chiefs across the 17 Southern states of the country also called on the Fulani/ Bororo herdsmen to maintain peace, obey the government and hold peaceful meetings occasionally, urging them to settle their rift with farmers. He urged the Fulani leaders not to cover up anyone found to be a terrorist or kidnapper saying all enemies of peaceful co-existence must the exposed.

On its part, the state police command also held a peace meeting with the farmers and Fulani herdsmen in the state on how to live peacefully without any crisis.

While the farmers accused herdsmen of grazing on their crops without restriction, rape their women, threaten them and sometimes use dangerous weapons to rob innocent commuters along several roads within the state, the herdsmen in turn accused the farmers of killing their animals by poisoning the water which their cattle drink. The Fulani Bororo cattle rearers also pointed out that those troubling the farmers and committing crime are non-resident herdsmen and strangers who are insensitive to the farmers and other locals.

Though they expressed their concerns in angry tone, both parties recognized the need to co-exist peacefully having done so for several decades.

The meeting conveyed by the Commissioner of Police, Leye Oyebade was well attended by all the stakeholders.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the parley, the two groups agreed to live together as they have been doing but with a renewed pledge to respect each other in the process of conducting their personal businesses.

Among others, both parties outlawed grazing at night, personal disarmament by herdsmen, stoppage of threats, rape and intimidation. They also agreed to expose any stranger or strange herdsmen who wander into their communities and hold regular meetings for exchange of information among stakeholders.

The communiqué also called on the government to set aside land for cattle ranch for herdsmen as well as train and retrain them for peaceful co-existence with host communities.

Addressing the participants, Mr Oyebade emphasized that every Nigerian is entitled to their rights as entrenched in the constitution of the country. He said crises may brew in the society but all parties must always find a way to dialogue and find the best solutions so that people can continue to live together peacefully. He, however, warned herdsmen against carrying firearms in the course of their business, saying anyone caught with firearms would be treated as a criminal. He also advised heads of the Fulani community to always pass on outcomes of their deliberations with host communities to their younger ones sine they are the ones that take the animals grazing on farmlands.

The police boss also warned farmers against poisoning the cattle.
And the government is not also folding its arms as it announced plans to constitute a committee saddled with the responsibility of putting an end to the lingering crises between Fulani cattle rearers and farmers in some parts of the state.

In Benue State, Governor Ortom who himself lost over 50 hectares of paddy farm to the herders inversion, on assumption of power as governor of the state, advocated for the creation of ranches as a possible way of ending Fulani/ Farmers clashes in the country and sought for collaboration of the idea by his colleagues across the country.

Ortom also made efforts to constitute several inter/Intra states security committees made up of the Fulanis and indigenes of Benue and Nasarawa States to quell the crisis.

Ortom at a security meeting with stakeholders in Otukpo made up of top government functionaries Fulani elders and traditional heads announced the extension of the amnesty program in the Benue South Senatorial District.

The Coordinator of Ondo State Public Private Partnership, Prince Nekan Olateru-Olagbegi explained that “people that have cows all over, those Fulanis, eventually the state might have to build ranch facilities for them and once they come in, we ask them to occupy and register them; we would be able to manage their activities and check their cattle to ensure they are healthy, which is the reason for an ultramodern abattoir to ensure people consume healthy beef.

“Once we set this up too, we will empower so many people, increase their welfare, the revenue of the state and of course, create ample job opportunities for the army of unemployed youths in the agricultural and industrial sectors,” he said.

The Secretary of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association in the state, Alhaji Usman Adamu said the association was established to ensure that its members “do the right things at all times as against cases of robbing, rapping and killing people in the farms.”

NorthernParrot:
@Op you are lost


if I'm lying ask independent

your analogy holds no water

This recent noise about fulani is indirectly aimed at Buhari, for himself is a fulani


Yeebos like insulting ppl like if they are agents the devil

Onenaira1:
Lost wetin? Independent were the ones who made a list of the fulani attacks all over Nigeria last year ALONE, not even talking about the ones they did years before that. For them to pull it down immediately the northern elders started ranting about "media attacks" on Fulani suggest they very likely forced independent to do so.

Noone is aiming anything at buhari. Maybe if the fulani stop attacking communities every where they fucking go, then noone would speak of them. The fulani have been a menace for years, they just got bolder because their demi-god who obviously support them is currently the president.

While I'm at it, the Fulani ARE AGENTS OF THE DEVIL. No apologize on that. They attack people all over WEST AFRICA, not just Nigeria. Infact lets use Ghana for example: One thing we can all narrate about Ghana is their is less tribalism in Ghana compare to Nigeria, in addition, there are less fulani in Ghana than Nigeria yet the Ghanaians EQUALLY complain of Fulani attacks against their people. That says alot.

You fuckers have zero humanity in ya'll. I'm not sorry for saying that. It's the fucking fact. Even the cows you niggas train are better humans than you lot.

NorthernParrot:
You see! you are indeed LOST
it is very shallow and narrow minded to look into the fulani face and tag them "agents of the devil" that shows how insensitive you guys are.

It is like calling the whole igbo nation as frauders, scammers, robbers, kidnappers, drug peddlers and products of baby factories or equally calling the whole of SS as militants

Buy some sense young man

NorthernParrot:
You see! you are indeed LOST
it is very shallow and narrow minded to look into the fulani face and tag them "agents of the devil" that shows how insensitive you guys are.

It is like calling the whole igbo nation as frauders, scammers, robbers, kidnappers, drug peddlers and products of baby factories or equally calling the whole of SS as militants

Buy some sense young man

DaBullIT:
Did it occur to you that maybe the story was false?


Or maybe it contained inciting statements

Or maybe it could potentially spark violence



That's the same thing Abia state government claimed about bodies of Police, army and navy detected in mass grave in one of their forests



I did not see anybody complain of information suppression

DaBullIT:
I got banned for calling IPOB and supporters terrorists and got banned for insulting a tribe


I'm not fulani, but calling them agents of devil without specifying cattle herders is an insult on fulani people as well

NorthernParrot:
Guy you are so childish, what is your age

can you pls grow up

The fourth deadliest known terrorist group has been named as the Fulani militant group operating in Nigeria and parts of the Central African Republic.

fiizznation:
Don't be silly young man? Many of you cowards hide behind faceless fora to throw shades at other ethnic groups especially the ones from the north. And is like you people do this everyday. Your morning prayer is north, your night prayer is north. When your brothers are all over the world committing different kind of atrocities, you people blame north. Your brothers killed themselves last week in Enugu and you people found a way to blame the invincible herdsmen. Are you guys forever gonna blame the north for the drugs you push, for the robbery you commit, for the rituals you do, for the girls you sold into prostitution, for your leaders that loot you dry, etc. You think people are fools. Of recent any crime committed over there is attributed to herdsmen, and why is that so? Well is simply because the president is a Fulani man. Look here young man, from your numerous outburst online, I can say you are one big loser in life and a real bloody coward. Only a sick mind will be up everyday insulting one tribe or another while ignoring his own tribe.

Why are you so bittered? Is it because you don't eat or what? Go and check your head young man. Everything isn't about hate.

I'm so disgusted with the way nairaland moderators don't ban sick minds like you

Onenaira1:
old enough to know a menace terrorist, devilish group when I see one


http://leaktimesng.com/2015/11/nigerian-fulani-herdsmen-fourth-most-deadly-terror-group-in-the-world/
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/global-terrorism-index-nigerian-fulani-militants-named-as-fourth-deadliest-terror-group-in-world-a6739851.html

Now come and rant that's it's "because of buhari" that people are accusing Fulani Herdsmen.

NorthernParrot:
Chai this boy you are so so damn fool
this is exactly what I'm preaching for you

your source didn't generalise the whole of fulani race, but some few individuals from the group

your source says "fulani militants" so how does that has to do with my fulani neighbour

Onenaira1:
This is one thing I hate about the North, NEVER ACCEPTING WHAT YOU NIGGAS DO.

When BH started, it was south. During their repeated killing of southerners, it's southern.

So it was Enugu people that killed Enugu people. I'm guessing the repeated menace attacks from different communities ranging from Middlebelt down to South West have all been lying on the fulani. Even illorin where fulani killed and appointed their own as the leader is all a lie. Even the repeated attacks of the community whenever they try to liberate themselves is all a lie. The Anioma obi as well as the isoko elder una killed is a lie. Ghanaians, malians and all other West Africans and Central Africans that have reported about fulani killing of their community are all LYING. The entire African community are lying on Fulani. My God, I honestly honestly wish they kick you people out of Asaba and South in General. You people have no humanity at all.

And No, noone is attacking or accusing the North of anything. There are multiple tribes in North and everyone of them live peacefully with others anywhere they go, only Fulani are the ones constantly attacking and killing the host of the land each time with zero remorse about it. The Hausa occasionally does so too but I will not be surprise if the hausa which does so are not Hausa/Fulani mixed

DaBullIT:
I got banned for calling IPOB and supporters terrorists and got banned for insulting a tribe


I'm not fulani, but calling them agents of devil without specifying cattle herders is an insult on fulani people as well

orisa37:
Thanks for this information. This is a clear sign that Jesus Christ is The Righteous;Christianity is superior to Muhammedanism and that Islam is not known yet to be given to Mohammed by Anobi Isa.. Islam is Worship Allah by the Spirit of Anobi Isa. But the Muslims are deliberately avoiding this Truth.. And God is now slowly but steadily revealing His Almightiness in the unfolding Truth that we are now witnessing.