Stop the bloody attacks on our people, Adamawa Indigenes warn

It is no longer news that herdsmen are killing farmers in many states of the federation, mostly in North-Central and parts of North-Eastern states.

From January to August this year the statistics of those killed by herdsmen in Girei and Demsa local councils of Adamawa State released by leaders of the affected communities show that 97 people lost their lives and 2,500 people were displaced.

The national president of Pene Da Bwatiye Association, a socio-cultural organization in Adamawa state, Mr. Hezron Fada, has confirmed the killing of 97 people, all members of his organization in six different villages by suspected Fulani herdsmen in the state from January to August this year.

The president who spoke on Monday during a world press conference attended by former deputy governor Lynn Nathan, former acting governor Pathon Power, lawmakers and top political leaders from the southern and central senatorial zones of Adamawa State, said that Fulani herdsmen’s hired mercenaries attacked five villages in Girei Local Council in January this year and killed 72 people, killed 25 people in Kodomun village in Demsa local council last week and on Monday night attacked another village in Guyuk council.

“There is no doubt that the killings by the Fulani herdsmen and their hired mercenaries were perpetrated under a grand design to annihilate the Bwatiye race as a people. Up to this time no one has been apprehended, questioned or sanctioned by the authorities over the brutal incidents. Is this not a conspiracy of silence? “ he queried.

“While we continue to look up to the state government for justice and protection, unfortunately, government failed in this regard. We find this failure of government unacceptable, as it is equally becoming more challenging to restrain our people from rising up to their own self-defense by every possible means against armed herdsmen that are using assault rifles and hard-core military weapons,” he lamented.

The leader of the group (Fada) who accused the Adamawa State Police Commissioner Alhaji Ghazzali Mohammed of conspiracy with herdsmen to kill his people, called on the Inspector -General of Police to remove him from the state for peace to rein and post a competent and unbiased officer to replace him.

“With the likes of the Commissioner of Police of Adamawa State, Alhaji Ghazzali Mohammed, as law enforcement officer, we will be faced with either non-compliance or complicity during crisis. You will recall that this Commissioner of Police on Tuesday August 2, 2016, said no life was lost in the invasion of Kodomun and that he did not allow his men to intervene in the attack because, according to him, it was a communal clash and to do so, he would appear to be taking sides. This man is not fit for a command position. He should be removed immediately by the inspector-General of police,” he stated.

Fada pointed out that the killings by herdsmen would not stop until government stops playing politics with the matter and also stop treating the Fulani herdsmen with kid’s gloves.

“We assume government is aware that unless culprits are apprehended and punished, we run the risk of communities resorting to the dreadful steps of securing self-justice. The danger is that no section of the citizenry or ethnic group has a monopoly of violence. Other groups may be forced to take measures to protect themselves and their properties. The result is going to be chaos and disorder in the country beyond the scope of government’s control. We, therefore, call on the government to check this dangerous drift to anarchy,” he pleaded.

Another group of community leaders of Njiya Goron, one of the villages in Koh Girei Local Council of Adamawa State where herdsmen invaded three months ago, killing over 60 people, have also accused Governor Mohammed Jibrilla Bindow, of not taking pro-active measures to avoid the bloody attack.

While addressing journalists earlier in April this year in Yola, the spokesman of the group Mr. Manasseh K. Nayangom, said that before the herdsmen attacked Koh, the elders of the community got the information and officially wrote the governor and the security agents including the police, but no action was taken to avert the killings.

“We have called you to further draw your attention to the Koh massacre where over 60 people were brutally murdered on January 24, 2016, which was downplayed or ignored by the authorities concerned after series of reports by Njiya Goron community on the imminent attack and after the attack. We decry the lukewarm attitude of the government towards the Jihad being waged against our people by the herdsmen and their armed squad,” they said.

The spokesman of the community said that names of those that master-minded the attack were sent to the security agents and the governor, but no arrests were made.

“It is despicable and unacceptable that despite the outcry that trailed the Koh killings and other villages by the Fulani militia, we are yet to hear of any arrest of the masterminds and sponsors of the
attack, even after mentioning their names in our petitions to the government.”

The group which said that there is another plan to attack their communities by the herdsmen, warned that they will no longer wait on
Government, who watched the killings of their people in Koh, but will use any means available to defend themselves in the event of any new attack.

“In the event where government fails in its responsibility to protect us from external aggression, we the people of Njiya Goron community shall assert our right to life and to peaceful existence by any means necessary . We want to warn and make it crystal clear that the hospitable and accommodating nature of Bwatiye people must not be mistaken for weakness,” he warned.

The group called on the governor to set up a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate the killings and bring those found guilty to justice.

What is now raising greater concern is not the herdsmen killings, but comments by the Adamawa State Police Commissioner Alhaji Ghazzali Mohammed, who told journalists in Hama Bata palace last week Tuesday that he cannot risk the lives of his men to go Kodomun where the herdsmen were killing farmers.

He said: “It is a communal clash between Fulani herdsmen and farmers, so sending police to Kodomun means that we are taking sides.”

Ghazzali also denied that nobody was killed in the Kodomun attack, a statement that made his host, Hama Bata His Royal Highness Alhamadu Gladstone Teneke, to quickly refute, saying that the Adamawa police commissioner did not only lie, but was also covering up the truth. The royal father said that several people lost their lives and hundreds of people were displaced.

The statement by the police boss has raised many questions concerning the constitutional duties of the police. People feel that by his actions and inaction, he was actually taking sides with the killers.

With his refusal to send his men to stop the killings that he simply waived off as ordinary “community clashes,” indigenes of these affected communities are asking the Police Service Commission to let Nigerians know the new duties Ghazzali has assigned to the police force in the country.