The incessant attacks by armed herdsmen
have continued unabated, inflicting acute
pain on the citizenry in several agrarian
communities. SOLOMON AYADO writes
“Our house was burnt by armed Fulani
herdsmen who invaded our community in
the night. They burnt houses and killed
people mercilessly. Some of us had
managed to escape and since the incident
happened, we have not been to our village.
The herdsmen have occupied the place and
even when our family members die, we are
not able to convey their corpses to our
ancestral homes for burial.”


These were the words of Tar Taver, a victim
of Moon village, an agrarian community at
the border area of Taraba and Benue states
where the herdsmen have totally sieged the
entire council ward. In fact, occupants of
this community who were displaced are
obviously yet to come to terms with the
bizarre.

“It is sad that we can no longer go to our
farms because they are completely occupied
by the herdsmen. Our houses which we left
have become homes of the herdsmen.They
live comfortably with their wives and herds
of cattle. It is not funny for someone to be
displaced. Life is frustrating, meaningless
and nothing seems to be moving well hence
we lack food, even as we are completely
prevented from our normal ways of life.”
With incessant attacks that ravaged the
agrarian communities especially in the
North Central states, it seems the security
situation in the country is dampening and
relevant security agencies are seemingly
unable to put in place urgent measures to
quickly contain it.

Except to anyone who is yet to experience
the deadly herdsmen attack, the misery
would be taken for a joke. But for someone
whose community is invaded by armed
bandits, without any envisage, may suggest
the less in the intensity of the general
national security. It is disheartening that the
ancestral home of a people is suddenly
converted into nested bowls of insurgents
who kill, burn houses and rape women at
will.

Ofcourse, the responsibility of every
government is to effectively ensure security
of lives and property of it’s citizens. This is
equally why the government subvent huge
sums of money to heads of government to
enhance the implementation of proactive
measures to protect lives and property of
the citizenry.

Generally, insecurity is a major challenge in
Nigeria and globally but most of the citizens
who spoke to LEADERSHIP said the situation
is worsening in the country. According to
them, it seems the government is facing the
other way especially in the aspect of tackling
the dastardly activities of armed herdsmen.
They said people are being killed anyhow
and there is urgent need for government to
intensify effort to avert and eradicate the
attacks.
This posit, they noted has meted untold
hardship. It has further influenced the lack
of food which has necessitated imminent
hunger in the country. Also, many persons
have ascribed the incessant herdsmen
attacks to a disguised measure to
depopulate a people. Otherwise, they
argued that the human life is so valuable for
any sane mind to waste without any cogent
reason.
Some of the victims who spoke to
LEADERSHIP in Plateau, Nassarawa, Taraba
and Benue states maintained that the
surging herdsmen attacks must be urgently
curtailed by government in order to foster
peace and rapid development. According to
them, there will be no meaningful
development where there is acrimony and
that peace will not strive where animosity
has taken the centre stage.
Narrating their ordeals, the victims said they
will not forget in a hurry the travails and
sufferings that inflict them.
“Imagine that you were deeply asleep and
the herdsmen invade your community in the
middle of the night, killing and burning
houses. No one had premonition that the
bandits would attack. We were not
prepared. To that extent, nobody was able
to escape with any property. We lost every
thing including our academic credentials
and food.

The disappointment is that the government
is ineptitude. Top government officials will
usually visit the IDPs and make unfulfilling
promises. Many of them divert government
funds meant to cater for displaced persons
to upgrade their private businesses. On the
side of our security agencies, the security
agents are not always proactive. They arrive
the scene only when the herdsmen must
have carried out the attacks and retreat. The
security men would quickly, and only make
themselves present as soon as the situation
is no longer reverberating,” one of the
victims stated.

The same story was shared by Mr. John
Ikulono who was met in Abuja. He said the
people of his community will not forget in a
hurry the massacre and massive destruction
of homes when the herdsmen invaded his
village in Okokolo in Agatu. According to
him, more security presence has to be
established in the attacked communities
especially in the rural areas.
“The rural dwellers are the most affected
because that is where the herdsmen find
access routes to the urban centres. There is
need for military presence in all the affected
communities. The attacks are more
occurring in the North Central states. Like in
the North East, the security presence there
have assisted greatly in the fight against
heinous activities of the Boko Haram sect
and this can be replicated in these areas
where herdsmen attack,” he stated.

However, it was observed that the fight
against herdsmen attacks require more than
it is presently. The government must be
proactive and refrain politicization of the
matter. Also, analysts have posited that it is
imperative for government to up finance
and provide modern arms and ammunition
to security personnel to appropriately tackle
the security breaches. The need to desist
from playing politics with the lives of the
people, they say is very important.

For example, in Benue state, many pundits
faulted a situation where trucks load of
military personnel, armed with modern
security equipments were drafted to Gbishe
community in Katsina-Ala LGA of the state in
search of a wanted militia leader popularly
called Gana, who was accused of killing a
security aide to Governor Samuel Ortom.
The security agents had quickly pulled down
the village, made several arrests and
recovered catchment of arms. Till now, a
military patrol team is stationed at the
Gbishe community. But while the patrol last,
herdsmen are not restraint from unleashing
terror on other agrarian communities.
According to a security expert who spoke to
LEADERSHIP on condition of anonymity due
to the sensitive nature of the matter, said
most of the heinous crimes are seemingly
perpetrated with the assistance of security
personnel hence their obvious inability to
prevent the attacks. He further stated that
government is ineptitude and appealed for
proactive security measures to enhance the
protection of the generality of the people.
“It is however, optimistic to adduce that
most of these crimes are carried out with
the help of some security agents. If not, how
can a military battalion be situated in the
state and several attacks would be
happening, killings of innocent citizens
would be incessantly unleashed without any
security measure to arrest the culprits or
prevent the attacks. It is unfortunate. It is
high time our security agencies protect our
communities and the government should
stop playing politics with the welfare of the
people” he said.

At the moment, the dastardly killings by
herdsmen have continued to ravage the
agrarian communities in the country without
any satisfactory effort from government and
relevant security agencies. Whether the
heinous herdsmen attacks which have
remained unabated is a total neglect to the
rural dwellers, it is a fact that rapid
development cannot strive in a state of
deep-seated hostility