Southern Kaduna and Mambila killings: What nobody will tell you about the carnage
By Ben Agande, Kaduna, & John Mkom, Jalingo
A known cattle rustler had just been spotted in Kajuru, Southern Kaduna. Attempts by some youths to apprehend him failed. Unfortunately, another set of criminally-minded youths spotted a father and his son (names withheld). They killed both. The Fulani’s mobilised and returned, this time to extract their retaliatory pound of flesh. About two dozen deaths were left behind. In another round of retaliation, southern Kaduna youths equally mobilised and did an eye for an eye. By the time the dust settled, over 38 persons had lost their lives. All these in southern Kaduna.
During a visit by Newsmen to Ngoroje IDP camp, in the Mambila Plateau of Taraba State, a woman, Salamatu Idris Bature, gave birth to a set of pre-mature twin . She lost one of them as a result of the poor condition of living in the camp. She was a victim in the latest native/Fulani killings in the state the penultimate week.
The latest incident in the seemingly unending carnage that has happened on Kaduna and Taraba States in the last one year, represents an escalation in the crisis between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in the volatile Southern Kaduna Senatorial District of the state, as well as the Mambila area. Although crisis between herdsmen and farmers has grown in large proportion across the country, the incident in southern Kaduna, which elicited – and continues to elicit – national and international outrage, with the brutal killing of about 800 farmers sometimes last year, has put the issue between the two groups in greater focus. The same goes for the recent mindless bloodbath on the Mambila Plateau.
What is known
While clashes between Fulani herdsmen and farmers have been on going for decades, especially in the northern parts of the country, the nationwide spread of such in recent times, specifically since May, 29, 2015, has caused more attention to be focused on it.
But in southern Kaduna, where the issue has become intractable, it is no longer a mere clash between farmers and herdsmen: it is a combination of mutual suspicion between the Muslim herdsmen and Christian farmers, political differences between the two groups and, in some cases – which most times are not mentioned – an ordinary case of criminality perpetrated by deviants from the two groups who, sadly, find solace within their communities.
According to Sunday Vanguard findings, while occurrences of deliberate provocation from either the Fulani herdsmen or farmers are few and far between, beneficiaries of violence have continued to fan the embers of divisiveness to further their goals, whether political, religious or ethnic.
But why will the Fulani herdsmen and fare eras who had lived peacefully together for decades suddenly turn against each other? Are there issues that have come up now that not there in the past? Is there any remote prospect for peace between these two groups in the near future?
The answers to these posers can only be found if there is a deliberate and concerted effort to achieve peace. But, if truth be told, none or signs of same exits – at least for now.
Two faces of self-help
In the past, with vast unutilised land and relatively small population, the Fulani herdsmen had unhindered access to the fertile land in southern Kaduna and indeed most parts of the country. Their herds could graze peacefully without encroaching on the farms of the sedentary natives. The traditional institution had a firm grip on the population and minor infractions could be easily and peacefully resolved without resort to violence.
But with the burgeoning population and with further pressure on the land, there was bound to be friction between the herdsmen and the farmers, as the demand for land became more intense between the two groups. With the weakening and sometimes politicization of traditional institutions, as well as the dwindling faith in the ability of government to impartially mediate in cases of crises between the two parties, people appeared to have resorted to self-help, a push to combined to find justice through the instrumentality of their weapons. The reprisals that follow each time, have turned into a vicious cycle that continue to gain intensity both in terms of casualty figures and the degree of damage to properties.
Criminal dimension
Added to this is the criminal dimension that fuels the crisis.
What appears to have been going on for decades, but which does not appear to be in the public domain, is the tendency of criminal elements within the farming communities to see the cows herded by Fulanis as fair sport and a ready source of meat anytime their appetite craved for one. While in the past, there were inbuilt mechanisms to nip such untoward behaviors in the bud, the erosion of moral values in the country has negatively affected such moral safety valve. With no hope for justice and faced with depleting herds, the herdsmen resorted to self help by unleashing violence on the communities where they suspect the killing of their cows took place. Though there has been widespread condemnation of such collective victimization, in their limited world view, this appears to be their own way of getting justice. Unfortunately, they suddenly began to perceive that same world view from the prism of being the justified aggressors, especially, since the authorities had not responded with the big stick each time herdsmen avenged the killing of their cows with the killing of humans.
In fact, it was this lack of firm response from President Muhammadu Buhari’s federal government, that further emboldened herdsmen across the country to inflict serious and often mortal injuries on their victims.
Added to this was the criminal addition of kidnapping and highway armed robbery.
Particularly, it was in the southern part of the country that the scourge of herdsmen-turned-highway armed robbers, that the menace became intractable.
Recently, however, between herdsmen and cattle rustlers, the Abuja/Kaduna highway, some parts of Oyo/Ogbomosho/Ilorin expressway, parts of Delta/Edo States, and Agatu land, became their play fields where people are usually subjected to the worst forms of dehumanization, employing the vile means of kidnapping, armed robbery and outright murder. Mercifully, at least for now, there is yet to be reports of herdsmen involvement in ritual killings.
Politics as weapon of hate
To this highly combustible mix, is added the unhealthy politicisation of every sphere of life in the state. Since the creation of the Kaduna State, the predominantly Muslims senatorial districts of Kaduna North and South, have ruled the state with the exception of Patrick Yakowa, who became the governor when then Governor Namadi Sambo was pick by President Goodluck Jonathan to become his Vice President after the demise of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
To an average southern Kaduna person, the Hausa Fulani represents the face of oppression in its worst political and religious forms. Consequently, most actions or inactions of a Hausa Fulani person is not viewed from an objective prism of logic and reason, but from the warped tunnel vision of either politics or religion.
Collateral victims
Sadly, the common farmer and herdsman who has nothing to do with politics ultimately becomes a pawn in the chessboard of political manipulators in the state.
With the hardening of positions on both sides of the divide, and the widespread suspicion, the internecine feud between the two groups is bound to continue for a while unless there is a sincere effort from the people to sheath their sword and live in peace.
Government on its part must not only be neutral and firm in dealing with the crisis, it must also be seen as being impartial.
Until these are achieved, the insecurity in the region may persist for a while.
Enter the Mambila carnage
The security operatives in Taraba state have reviewed the immediate and remote causes of the clashes between the Mambila and Fulani ethnic groups, at Mambila Plateau, of Sadauna Local Government Area, in Taraba State.
While briefing journalists on the causes of the clashes, the former commissioner of police, Taraba State command, Mr. Yonana Babas, said there were standing issues of land dispute between the Fulani and the Mambila of Ngoroje area. He also said the state government was aware of the development and and efforts were on the way for peaceful resolutions before the breakdown of law and order.
“The causes of the clashes can be divided into remote and immediate: the remote is that the Mambila and the Fulanis were having some disagreements between them over land dispute which the state government was aware of, and steps were taken to tackle the matter judiciously. The immediate that broke the camel’s back was a case that was being handled by a magistrate court between one Alhaji Rini, of Ngoroje, who is a Fulani man and two others – Umaru Musa Moh’jida and Hhusaini Sule of Binta village – who are Mambila, and were remanded in prison custody by court.
“The kinsmen of Umoru Musa and Moj’jida started making calls to the complainants threatening to burn down their houses and kill them if they did not go to court to release their kinsmen. They the actualized their threats when court did not released them from remand by burning down their houses and inflicting injuries on their victims.
“Police was called upon and two arrests were made and the case was transferred to SCIID for diligent and detailed investigation for the law to take its course. On June 18, 2017, the SCIID went to Gyembu and arrested two more persons whose names were featured prominently during the investigation; that sparked off anger amongst the Mambila, by giving it an ethnic coloration; they conspired among themselves sent words across, mobilizing their kinsmen for dastardly act that were recorded”.
Information available to Sunday Vanguard suggests that the arrest of the two persons by the police was carried out late in the night, which was, therefore, conceived as an act of kidnap by unknown gunmen. This was what led the people of the area to react and mobilize in the manner they did, with a view to rescuing and their kinsmen who were alleged to have been kidnaped by the Fulanis.
Sunday Vanguard checks at Mambila Plateau further suggested that the clashes were neither political nor religious, but, purely, ethnic related – over land.
The villages of Mambila tribes that were destroyed as a result of the clashes included but may not have been limited to Damau, Rijire, Mayo-sina, Gurugu, Zango-Ajia, Mai-Sanda, Yelwa, May-Sembe and Selti.
It was further discovered that the Fulani villages that were destroyed in the crisis included the villages at Mbamga, Tanya, Tep, Ardo-Adamu, Nera, Batri-Kona, Tuwa, other Fulani villages that were affected by the crisis were Mbar-Nwa, Hainare, and some selected Fulani houses at Ngoroje, the town where the crisis started.
Although the police confirmed that seven people were killed in the crisis, Sunday Vanguard was made to understand that over 40 people – of Mambila and Fulani stock – may have been killed in the crisis. Several cows belonging to both Fulani and Mambla were also killed in the communal crisis.
Government intervention
Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba State had earlier, before this latest round of crisis broke, directed his deputy, Haruna Manu, to summon a security meeting among all the tribes at the Mambila Plateau – this was in anticipation and possible nipping in the bud, of a breakdown of law and other.
All the major tribes, including the Mambila, Fulani, Kaka, and Kambu, were summoned as directed by the governor. The meeting was presided over by the deputy governor; and it dealt with issues bothering on how to tackle the disputes were discussed – this was shortly before the outbreak of the Mambila crisis.
Although the crisis broke while Ishaku was away in Germany to facilitate foreign investments in the state, security was sharply mobilized by the state government to contain the crisis.
The federal government, curiously, on the third day of the crisis, also sent a quick multi-joint tax force comprising the army, Nigerian Civil Defence Service Corp, NSCDC, and the police – the joint force was headed by Gen. Benjamin Ahonato, the Acting G. O. C, 3 Division Jos.
Another powerful delegation was led by the minister of interior, Gen. Abdulaman Danbazau, along with the Commandant General NSCDC, Abdulahi Muhamadu Gana, and a representative of the Inspector General of Police.
Danbazau disclosed to Governor Ishaku that the delegation was in Taraba State for a fact findings on the recent communal crisis at the Mambila Plateau between the Mambila and the Fulanis. He said the delegation was in the state also to condole with the governor and the entire people of the state over the demise of the former governor of the state, Danbaba Suntai, and thereafter proceeded to the plateau to ascertain the level of damages and also to get first hand information about the cause of the crisis.
Governor Ishaku’s anger
In his response, Governor Ishaku thanked the minister and his entourage for the visit, but quickly added that had the federal government been proactive on security matters the way it acted regarding the Mambila Plateau crisis, the nation wouldn’t have recorded the constant break down of law and order leading to many loss of lives the way it has being happening.
“Often than not in Nigeria we do not think of how we can prevent crisis until when it gets worse and I think this is very bad,. We in Taraba State, we have had, within a span of a year, more than eight crises in this state in different local government ares but it has not been taken with vibrancy like this one is being taken.
“If we had taken these actions we are taking today in the previous crises, it would have prevented even the clashes at the Mambila. We are all Nigerians, to me as a governor any loss of life is a loss to me too. I don’t know how other people feel but I’m very sensitive because any time there is crisis in the state, I don’t sleep; because is my duty to provide security to everybody, including the locals.
“We have to be up to our expectations to discharge our duties. Hon. Minister, I’m very happy with your coming. Let us take the necessary actions on things that are happening.
Shake’s statement about the promptness of the federal government’s response to the latest crisis in Mambila was a veiled reference to the jagged insinuation that the response was a function of the fact that Fulani’s were at the receiving end. His disguised thesis does not apply to Taraba State alone. Across the country, there is the feeling of injustice, occasioned by federal government’s neglect of crises when it affects others but jumps into action whenever Fulani herdsmen are at the receiving end. From Delta to Ekiti, to Abia, Enugu and even Ile-Ife, in Osun State, the impression, truthful or otherwise, is that this federal government feels more compelled to rise in defence of Fulanis when they are victims of any form of crisis. Those who hold this view complain that, whereas natives were massacred in Enugu and Abia, prompting reprisal killings in the latter, it was only then the Nigeria Police swung into prompt action to arrest people who were alleged to have engage in the retaliatory killing of Fulanis in Abia State.
By the same disgusting token, something similar happened in Ife, with the police moving in and even effecting arrests.
Cobversely, when Fulani herdsmen are on the offensive or on their usual rampage, no useful arrests are made, just as they aggressors relish in the belief that nothing will happen to them – as nothing, in most cases, had.
Continuing his lamentation, the governor said “I have complained since last year, that Taraba is the only state in the north east that has not been visited by the Boko Haram,; but they are now setting up a camp in Suntai Daaji, a Forest in Bali local government area.
“It’s been almost a year now since I made my complaint to the federal government but nothing positive has been done there. Do we have to wait until they create their roots and start killing people that we will rise to the occasion?”, he asked in anger.
Uneasy calm
Sunday Vanguard’s visit at Mambila Plateau revealed that there is uneasy normalcy, following the attacks and killings that recently bedevilled the area.
Going round the affected villages, it was discovered that those who returned to their destroyed places were still living in fear of possible further attacks. There has been rumours going round, of possible reprisal attacks, which has forced women and children to remain in Internally Displaced (peoples) Camps, IDP.
Sunday Vanguard further gathered that there is already a deployment of 10 military men to each affected village in the area, to maintain peace and forestall further attacks,
At one of the camps, Sunday Vanguard witnessed the distribution of relief materials that were donated by both the state and federal government to the IDPs who camped at the abode of the Chief of Mambika, G.D.S.S Gyembu, Haruna Laulu House and G.D.S.S. Ngoroje.
A known cattle rustler had just been spotted in Kajuru, Southern Kaduna. Attempts by some youths to apprehend him failed. Unfortunately, another set of criminally-minded youths spotted a father and his son (names withheld). They killed both. The Fulani’s mobilised and returned, this time to extract their retaliatory pound of flesh. About two dozen deaths were left behind. In another round of retaliation, southern Kaduna youths equally mobilised and did an eye for an eye. By the time the dust settled, over 38 persons had lost their lives. All these in southern Kaduna.
During a visit by Newsmen to Ngoroje IDP camp, in the Mambila Plateau of Taraba State, a woman, Salamatu Idris Bature, gave birth to a set of pre-mature twin . She lost one of them as a result of the poor condition of living in the camp. She was a victim in the latest native/Fulani killings in the state the penultimate week.
The latest incident in the seemingly unending carnage that has happened on Kaduna and Taraba States in the last one year, represents an escalation in the crisis between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in the volatile Southern Kaduna Senatorial District of the state, as well as the Mambila area. Although crisis between herdsmen and farmers has grown in large proportion across the country, the incident in southern Kaduna, which elicited – and continues to elicit – national and international outrage, with the brutal killing of about 800 farmers sometimes last year, has put the issue between the two groups in greater focus. The same goes for the recent mindless bloodbath on the Mambila Plateau.
What is known
While clashes between Fulani herdsmen and farmers have been on going for decades, especially in the northern parts of the country, the nationwide spread of such in recent times, specifically since May, 29, 2015, has caused more attention to be focused on it.
But in southern Kaduna, where the issue has become intractable, it is no longer a mere clash between farmers and herdsmen: it is a combination of mutual suspicion between the Muslim herdsmen and Christian farmers, political differences between the two groups and, in some cases – which most times are not mentioned – an ordinary case of criminality perpetrated by deviants from the two groups who, sadly, find solace within their communities.
According to Sunday Vanguard findings, while occurrences of deliberate provocation from either the Fulani herdsmen or farmers are few and far between, beneficiaries of violence have continued to fan the embers of divisiveness to further their goals, whether political, religious or ethnic.
But why will the Fulani herdsmen and fare eras who had lived peacefully together for decades suddenly turn against each other? Are there issues that have come up now that not there in the past? Is there any remote prospect for peace between these two groups in the near future?
The answers to these posers can only be found if there is a deliberate and concerted effort to achieve peace. But, if truth be told, none or signs of same exits – at least for now.
Two faces of self-help
In the past, with vast unutilised land and relatively small population, the Fulani herdsmen had unhindered access to the fertile land in southern Kaduna and indeed most parts of the country. Their herds could graze peacefully without encroaching on the farms of the sedentary natives. The traditional institution had a firm grip on the population and minor infractions could be easily and peacefully resolved without resort to violence.
But with the burgeoning population and with further pressure on the land, there was bound to be friction between the herdsmen and the farmers, as the demand for land became more intense between the two groups. With the weakening and sometimes politicization of traditional institutions, as well as the dwindling faith in the ability of government to impartially mediate in cases of crises between the two parties, people appeared to have resorted to self-help, a push to combined to find justice through the instrumentality of their weapons. The reprisals that follow each time, have turned into a vicious cycle that continue to gain intensity both in terms of casualty figures and the degree of damage to properties.
Criminal dimension
Added to this is the criminal dimension that fuels the crisis.
What appears to have been going on for decades, but which does not appear to be in the public domain, is the tendency of criminal elements within the farming communities to see the cows herded by Fulanis as fair sport and a ready source of meat anytime their appetite craved for one. While in the past, there were inbuilt mechanisms to nip such untoward behaviors in the bud, the erosion of moral values in the country has negatively affected such moral safety valve. With no hope for justice and faced with depleting herds, the herdsmen resorted to self help by unleashing violence on the communities where they suspect the killing of their cows took place. Though there has been widespread condemnation of such collective victimization, in their limited world view, this appears to be their own way of getting justice. Unfortunately, they suddenly began to perceive that same world view from the prism of being the justified aggressors, especially, since the authorities had not responded with the big stick each time herdsmen avenged the killing of their cows with the killing of humans.
In fact, it was this lack of firm response from President Muhammadu Buhari’s federal government, that further emboldened herdsmen across the country to inflict serious and often mortal injuries on their victims.
Added to this was the criminal addition of kidnapping and highway armed robbery.
Particularly, it was in the southern part of the country that the scourge of herdsmen-turned-highway armed robbers, that the menace became intractable.
Recently, however, between herdsmen and cattle rustlers, the Abuja/Kaduna highway, some parts of Oyo/Ogbomosho/Ilorin expressway, parts of Delta/Edo States, and Agatu land, became their play fields where people are usually subjected to the worst forms of dehumanization, employing the vile means of kidnapping, armed robbery and outright murder. Mercifully, at least for now, there is yet to be reports of herdsmen involvement in ritual killings.
Politics as weapon of hate
To this highly combustible mix, is added the unhealthy politicisation of every sphere of life in the state. Since the creation of the Kaduna State, the predominantly Muslims senatorial districts of Kaduna North and South, have ruled the state with the exception of Patrick Yakowa, who became the governor when then Governor Namadi Sambo was pick by President Goodluck Jonathan to become his Vice President after the demise of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.
To an average southern Kaduna person, the Hausa Fulani represents the face of oppression in its worst political and religious forms. Consequently, most actions or inactions of a Hausa Fulani person is not viewed from an objective prism of logic and reason, but from the warped tunnel vision of either politics or religion.
Collateral victims
Sadly, the common farmer and herdsman who has nothing to do with politics ultimately becomes a pawn in the chessboard of political manipulators in the state.
With the hardening of positions on both sides of the divide, and the widespread suspicion, the internecine feud between the two groups is bound to continue for a while unless there is a sincere effort from the people to sheath their sword and live in peace.
Government on its part must not only be neutral and firm in dealing with the crisis, it must also be seen as being impartial.
Until these are achieved, the insecurity in the region may persist for a while.
Enter the Mambila carnage
The security operatives in Taraba state have reviewed the immediate and remote causes of the clashes between the Mambila and Fulani ethnic groups, at Mambila Plateau, of Sadauna Local Government Area, in Taraba State.
While briefing journalists on the causes of the clashes, the former commissioner of police, Taraba State command, Mr. Yonana Babas, said there were standing issues of land dispute between the Fulani and the Mambila of Ngoroje area. He also said the state government was aware of the development and and efforts were on the way for peaceful resolutions before the breakdown of law and order.
“The causes of the clashes can be divided into remote and immediate: the remote is that the Mambila and the Fulanis were having some disagreements between them over land dispute which the state government was aware of, and steps were taken to tackle the matter judiciously. The immediate that broke the camel’s back was a case that was being handled by a magistrate court between one Alhaji Rini, of Ngoroje, who is a Fulani man and two others – Umaru Musa Moh’jida and Hhusaini Sule of Binta village – who are Mambila, and were remanded in prison custody by court.
“The kinsmen of Umoru Musa and Moj’jida started making calls to the complainants threatening to burn down their houses and kill them if they did not go to court to release their kinsmen. They the actualized their threats when court did not released them from remand by burning down their houses and inflicting injuries on their victims.
“Police was called upon and two arrests were made and the case was transferred to SCIID for diligent and detailed investigation for the law to take its course. On June 18, 2017, the SCIID went to Gyembu and arrested two more persons whose names were featured prominently during the investigation; that sparked off anger amongst the Mambila, by giving it an ethnic coloration; they conspired among themselves sent words across, mobilizing their kinsmen for dastardly act that were recorded”.
Information available to Sunday Vanguard suggests that the arrest of the two persons by the police was carried out late in the night, which was, therefore, conceived as an act of kidnap by unknown gunmen. This was what led the people of the area to react and mobilize in the manner they did, with a view to rescuing and their kinsmen who were alleged to have been kidnaped by the Fulanis.
Sunday Vanguard checks at Mambila Plateau further suggested that the clashes were neither political nor religious, but, purely, ethnic related – over land.
The villages of Mambila tribes that were destroyed as a result of the clashes included but may not have been limited to Damau, Rijire, Mayo-sina, Gurugu, Zango-Ajia, Mai-Sanda, Yelwa, May-Sembe and Selti.
It was further discovered that the Fulani villages that were destroyed in the crisis included the villages at Mbamga, Tanya, Tep, Ardo-Adamu, Nera, Batri-Kona, Tuwa, other Fulani villages that were affected by the crisis were Mbar-Nwa, Hainare, and some selected Fulani houses at Ngoroje, the town where the crisis started.
Although the police confirmed that seven people were killed in the crisis, Sunday Vanguard was made to understand that over 40 people – of Mambila and Fulani stock – may have been killed in the crisis. Several cows belonging to both Fulani and Mambla were also killed in the communal crisis.
Government intervention
Governor Darius Ishaku of Taraba State had earlier, before this latest round of crisis broke, directed his deputy, Haruna Manu, to summon a security meeting among all the tribes at the Mambila Plateau – this was in anticipation and possible nipping in the bud, of a breakdown of law and other.
All the major tribes, including the Mambila, Fulani, Kaka, and Kambu, were summoned as directed by the governor. The meeting was presided over by the deputy governor; and it dealt with issues bothering on how to tackle the disputes were discussed – this was shortly before the outbreak of the Mambila crisis.
Although the crisis broke while Ishaku was away in Germany to facilitate foreign investments in the state, security was sharply mobilized by the state government to contain the crisis.
The federal government, curiously, on the third day of the crisis, also sent a quick multi-joint tax force comprising the army, Nigerian Civil Defence Service Corp, NSCDC, and the police – the joint force was headed by Gen. Benjamin Ahonato, the Acting G. O. C, 3 Division Jos.
Another powerful delegation was led by the minister of interior, Gen. Abdulaman Danbazau, along with the Commandant General NSCDC, Abdulahi Muhamadu Gana, and a representative of the Inspector General of Police.
Danbazau disclosed to Governor Ishaku that the delegation was in Taraba State for a fact findings on the recent communal crisis at the Mambila Plateau between the Mambila and the Fulanis. He said the delegation was in the state also to condole with the governor and the entire people of the state over the demise of the former governor of the state, Danbaba Suntai, and thereafter proceeded to the plateau to ascertain the level of damages and also to get first hand information about the cause of the crisis.
Governor Ishaku’s anger
In his response, Governor Ishaku thanked the minister and his entourage for the visit, but quickly added that had the federal government been proactive on security matters the way it acted regarding the Mambila Plateau crisis, the nation wouldn’t have recorded the constant break down of law and order leading to many loss of lives the way it has being happening.
“Often than not in Nigeria we do not think of how we can prevent crisis until when it gets worse and I think this is very bad,. We in Taraba State, we have had, within a span of a year, more than eight crises in this state in different local government ares but it has not been taken with vibrancy like this one is being taken.
“If we had taken these actions we are taking today in the previous crises, it would have prevented even the clashes at the Mambila. We are all Nigerians, to me as a governor any loss of life is a loss to me too. I don’t know how other people feel but I’m very sensitive because any time there is crisis in the state, I don’t sleep; because is my duty to provide security to everybody, including the locals.
“We have to be up to our expectations to discharge our duties. Hon. Minister, I’m very happy with your coming. Let us take the necessary actions on things that are happening.
Shake’s statement about the promptness of the federal government’s response to the latest crisis in Mambila was a veiled reference to the jagged insinuation that the response was a function of the fact that Fulani’s were at the receiving end. His disguised thesis does not apply to Taraba State alone. Across the country, there is the feeling of injustice, occasioned by federal government’s neglect of crises when it affects others but jumps into action whenever Fulani herdsmen are at the receiving end. From Delta to Ekiti, to Abia, Enugu and even Ile-Ife, in Osun State, the impression, truthful or otherwise, is that this federal government feels more compelled to rise in defence of Fulanis when they are victims of any form of crisis. Those who hold this view complain that, whereas natives were massacred in Enugu and Abia, prompting reprisal killings in the latter, it was only then the Nigeria Police swung into prompt action to arrest people who were alleged to have engage in the retaliatory killing of Fulanis in Abia State.
By the same disgusting token, something similar happened in Ife, with the police moving in and even effecting arrests.
Cobversely, when Fulani herdsmen are on the offensive or on their usual rampage, no useful arrests are made, just as they aggressors relish in the belief that nothing will happen to them – as nothing, in most cases, had.
Continuing his lamentation, the governor said “I have complained since last year, that Taraba is the only state in the north east that has not been visited by the Boko Haram,; but they are now setting up a camp in Suntai Daaji, a Forest in Bali local government area.
“It’s been almost a year now since I made my complaint to the federal government but nothing positive has been done there. Do we have to wait until they create their roots and start killing people that we will rise to the occasion?”, he asked in anger.
Uneasy calm
Sunday Vanguard’s visit at Mambila Plateau revealed that there is uneasy normalcy, following the attacks and killings that recently bedevilled the area.
Going round the affected villages, it was discovered that those who returned to their destroyed places were still living in fear of possible further attacks. There has been rumours going round, of possible reprisal attacks, which has forced women and children to remain in Internally Displaced (peoples) Camps, IDP.
Sunday Vanguard further gathered that there is already a deployment of 10 military men to each affected village in the area, to maintain peace and forestall further attacks,
At one of the camps, Sunday Vanguard witnessed the distribution of relief materials that were donated by both the state and federal government to the IDPs who camped at the abode of the Chief of Mambika, G.D.S.S Gyembu, Haruna Laulu House and G.D.S.S. Ngoroje.
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