The Governor of Taraba State, Darius Ishaku, has said any blackmail and propaganda employed by cattle breeders to turn themselves into victims will fail, saying the herdsmen are the killers and not victims.
The apex body of Fulani cattle herders, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, in an earlier press conference on Sunday, had said the governments of Benue, Taraba states and others were sponsoring a hate campaign against herdsmen and also arming ethnic militias to kill them.
The National Secretary of MACBAN, Usman Ngeljarma, spoke for the group in Abuja on Sunday.
The MACBAN secretary said, “It is no longer hidden that some state governments are sponsoring ethnic militias against our people, recruiting and arming locals to kill our people and rustle their livestock as seen recently in Benue and Taraba states.”
But the Taraba State governor, who spoke through his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Bala Abu, said the Miyetti Allah was trying desperately to turn the truth upside down.
“The people who were given mass burial were not the Fulani. National television stations and newspapers published the story. No single Fulani man was killed; instead, they (Fulani) were the killers.
“I challenge them to come out with evidence against the governor that he is training ethnic militia against the Fulani. They should also name the location where the training is taking place so security agencies can move in to effect arrest.
“We are aware of their plot to stop the implementation of the Taraba State Open Grazing Prohibition Law which is due to commence soon, but the governor won’t be deterred in his quest to bring peace to the state,” he said.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Taraba State Governor on Public Affairs, Emmanuel Bello, in an email to The PUNCH, also said the government had not established any militia camp anywhere, as the governor believed in peace.
“The Lau crisis is under serious investigations to establish the remote and immediate causes. The truth will unravel everything with time, “ he said.
Also, the Benue State governor in a statement by his Media Adviser, Mr. Tahav Agerzua, denied that militias arrested by the military were recruited and trained by the state government.
The statement read in part, “Governor Ortom is widely recognised for his disarmament policy which brought the amnesty programme, leading to the recovery of about 700 arms and ammunition with over 800 youths laying down their weapons to embrace the programme.
“It is also on record that the present administration inherited the Taraba State Civilian Joint Task Force from the previous government but later proscribed it.
“The Benue State Government believes in the use of conventional security agencies to protect the people.”
“Even in the face of renewed killing of innocent people by herdsmen in the Logo and Guma local government areas, Governor Ortom did not let the people resort to self -help. The governor acted swiftly to get the approval of President Muhammadu Buhari for the deployment of more troops in troubled parts of the state.”
Benue, Taraba govts planning attack
– Herdsmen
In the press conference by the MACBAN the group said Benue, Taraba states and others were sponsoring a hate campaign against herdsmen and also arming ethnic militias to kill herdsmen.
The National Secretary of MACBAN, Usman Ngeljarma, said, “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.”
Plateau gov apologises
The Plateau State Governor, Mr. Solomon Lalong, has apologised for his comments on the killings by herdsmen in Benue State.
Lalong, who stated this in an interview with journalists on Saturday, said his comments after his visit to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa on Thursday were misinterpreted.
Lalong, in the interview had said he warned his Benue State counterpart, Samuel Ortom, against implementing the state anti-open grazing law.
He had said, “To be honest with you, I advised him. I told the governor of Benue State when he was initiating the law; I said ‘look, why don’t you tread softly, just be careful.”
But on Saturday Lalong said, “I must say that I humbly apologise for my comments because I have seen that it was misconceived and misinterpreted.
“I apologise for that (his comment) because neither the argument for or against helps the matter because it involves lives.
“I have great respect for the sanctity of human lives and the unity of the Middle Belt. I will not say Plateau is fighting Benue State. We are brothers and sisters. Benue was created out of Plateau. Nasarawa was created out of Plateau.”
“My prayer is that God will continue to give them and every Nigerian, the fortitude to bear the loss.”
I have forgiven Lalong —Ortom
Ortom on Sunday said he had forgiven his counterpart in Plateau State over his statement on the anti-open grazing law.
According to Ortom, as a Christian who believes in the teaching of the Holy Scripture, it is human to err, but forgiveness is divine.
The governor, who spoke through Akase, said he had no personal problem with Lalong.
He said, “Ortom and Lalong only differed on the modes for permanently ending the crisis caused by herdsmen. Even before his reported apology, the governor had said he has forgiven his Plateau State counterpart.”
Sultan, Miyetti Allah chairman –Sultanate
The Sultanate has stated that the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’adu Abubakar, remains the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Miyetti Allah.
The Secretary to the Sultanate, Faruk Ladan, said this during an interview with our correspondent on Saturday.
When asked why the Sultan had not spoken up in the face of the recent crisis, he said the monarch was out of the country.
He said “The Sultan is the chairman of the Board of Trustees of Miyetti Allah. The Sultan is not in town so I cannot speak further.”
Also speaking with our correspondent, the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi (II), made corrections to a claim in an exclusive interview he gave Sunday PUNCH.
In the interview, Sanusi had claimed that the immediate past Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam, had appointed a politician, who was identified by an investigative panel as a key man behind the killing of Fulani, as the attorney-general of the state and made sure no one was called to account.
However, the emir stated that he was referring to the late Governor Danbaba Suntai of Taraba State and not Suswam of Benue.
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