Every day more than 100 shepherds are kidnapped, many are killed, government is silent

The Coalition of Pastoralists Association (CPAN) has raised the alarm about the continued killing and kidnapping of more than a hundred pastoralists a day in some parts of the country.

The ranchers said their members were killed and ransomed to captors who paid huge sums and sometimes used their animals for ransom.

Addressing journalists on behalf of the coalition, Baba Othman Ngelzarma, the national president of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), said the Nigerian state has seen livestock farming disappear in recent years due to natural and man-made disasters .

“There is no denying that the easiest and most effective way to destroy a group of people is to destroy their businesses and sources of livelihood income.

“Supported by the government’s conspiratorial silence, many Nigerians, particularly sub-national entities across the country, have adopted the culture of intolerance towards our people and livestock,” he said.

While saying that the state governments are making unpleasant laws to drive our people away, he said there was a ban on open grazing without providing infrastructure for alternatives, claiming that the government was confiscating their cows and recklessly arresting their people and imposed huge fines on them. .

“We are not happy because our company is suffering greatly from the collusion of the government and other Nigerians.

“The Fulani have been the target of stereotypes, ethnic cleansing and mass murder in almost all states of the Federation.

“From Zamfara in the northwest, to Adamawa, Taraba in the northeast, Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa in the north, to Ondo and Oyo in the southwest, or worse, the southeastern states, the Fulani people are the subject for unwarranted reasons been of hatred and destruction

“On December 3, 2022, soldiers killed innocent herdsmen in Rugan Waziri, Rafin Sarkin Fatika village.

“Similarly, Fulbe pastoralists are victims of killings and cattle rustlings in the local governments of Rafi, Shiroro, Munya, Mashegu and Borgu in Niger State. Between October 2022 and December 2023, a total of 75 herders were killed, while more than 900 cattle were zipped.

“Vigilante groups on the payroll and support of the government of Taraba killed at least 314 herders between October 2022 and January 16, 2023. More than 5,000 cattle rustled as homes/settlements burned down and agricultural produce was looted,” he added.

Ngelzarma said the recent airstrikes on Tuesday, January 24, 2023 in Akwanaja village in Rukubi district, Doma LGA of Nasarawa state, killed more than 30 Fulani herdsmen, 15 Hausa drivers and truck boys while unloading trucks of livestock.

“Another 62 suffered varying degrees of injuries, some life-threatening. Before the incident, Benue State Livestock Guards had raided and seized 1,254 cows at Rukubi, Nasarawa-Benue border communities in Doma LGA of Nasarawa State.

“The guards insisted that the herdsmen pay hefty fines running into the millions. A negotiated ransom of twenty-seven million nairas (N27,000,000) was agreed between the Fulani owners of the seized cattle and the government of Benue State. The shepherds received a loan from commercial banks.

“A week after the tragedy, neither the federal government nor Benue’s have felt it appropriate to offer a single word of explanation or comfort is staggering,” he said.

The coalition presented their prayers, demanding “the immediate acknowledgment of responsibility by the Nigerian military, unreserved apologies and condolences to the families of the deceased pastoralists.

“The immediate exile, disbandment, arrest and prosecution of leaders and members of the Ortom Tiv Tribal Militia, also known as Benue State Livestock Guards.

“The establishment of an Independent Judicial Commission of Inquiry to identify, investigate, arrest and prosecute all persons and entities involved in the murder, dispossession, cattle theft, cattle kidnapping and extortion of our members in Benue and adjacent states since 2017 when the Anti-Open Grazing Law was enacted and enforced in Benue State.

“To provide and guarantee immediate safety to all innocent law-abiding Fulbe citizens living in parts of Benue and all adjacent states.

“The identification, investigation, arrest and prosecution of all NSCDC, NPF, Army and Nigerian Air Force personnel involved in providing support to the Tiv Tribal Militia of Ortom in extrajudicial killings of Fulbe herdsmen and other innocent civilians, cattle rustling and kidnapping, arson, extortion, ransom collection, mass displacement and ethnic cleansing.

“Immediate Federal Government intervention to release thousands of livestock and innocent Fulbe herders illegally held by police and Ortom’s Tiv tribal militia in Benue for extortion and torture.

“Identification, profiling, rehabilitation and payment of reparations to all victims of these heinous crimes since the enactment and enforcement of this criminal, unconstitutional and discriminatory law in Benue State.

“Restoring dialogue and communal harmony between Fulbe herdsmen and Tiv farmers in the states of Benue, Nasrawa and Taraba as a panacea for future peace in the stricken states.