The killings that had held some communities in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, Plateau State bound for long returned at a time it was thought that peace had finally returned to the area. YUSUFU AMINU IDEGU x-rays the renewed violence and the attendant humanitarian problems.
The ongoing efforts by stakeholders, particularly the Plateau State Government, to restore peace in Berom land collapsed with another invasion allegedly masterminded by Fulani militia last week. This time, the centre of the bloodletting was Bisichi village in Foron District, Barkin Ladi Local Government Area. The invasion of the village resulted in the death of 10 Berom people, according to Bisichi Community Youth Leader, Mr. Mark Pam Bot.
Narrating how the attack was carried out, Bot said: “This is not the first attack by Fulani militia in the locality. This time, the Fulani who are resident in the village went to hire some Fulani mercenaries from somewhere just to attack and kill Berom people.
“Before now, there were reserved areas in our communities where we warned the Fulani herdsmen not to go to graze their cattle because such places are where our people perform their traditional rituals.
“But each time the Fulani want to provoke an attack, they will go and graze their cattle in the forbidden areas. And each time they do that, they draw the anger of our people.
“Our people have been warning them not to repeat the act, but because the Fulani are prepared for trouble, they keep going there.
“You would realise that we also live with Hausa Muslims in the same village. But since they don’t rear cows, we are living peacefully with them.
“The Fulani feel that no one can stop them from grazing. They also believe that nobody should restrict their cows from grazing.
“But when they abuse the rules of the community and they are attacked, they vent their anger on our people in Bisichi village.
“We learnt that they were attacked in Heipang for grazing in forbidden areas. We are not the ones that attacked them. But when they returned home, they launched an attack on us.”
The Secretary of Fulani Cattle Breeders Association in Barkin Ladi, Adam Muhammed, however disputed Bot’s claims, saying that it was the Berom youths that came to surround Bisichi village to launch an attack on the Fulani residents, adding that it was the security agencies that rescued them from the attack.
According to Muhammed, the Berom had killed seven Fulani people in the attack before the police came to their rescue.
The accusations and counter-accusation notwithstanding, the conflict left in its trail some humanitarian concerns in the locality. Many victims of the violence writhe in severe pains at the Plateau Specialists Hospital in Jos.
Curiously, all the injured victims in the hospital were Berom youths. One of them, a 19-year-old student of Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa, was seeing wallowing in pains in the hospital, having been shot in the left eye which his loved ones feared might have been lost. After the last surgical operation carried out on the eye, they said, there was no hope that he would see again.
Many Berom people lost their homes to the latest attack. No fewer than 30 residential houses were demolished allegedly by Fulani militia. Owners of the affected homes are already taking refuge in a primary school within the locality. A visit to the school revealed the pains that filled the hearts of the victims. Their condition becomes even more pathetic considering that the rainy season is at its peak in the state. Women and children constituted the majority of the refugees in the camp. They were seen crying for help and relief materials.
At the hospital, an elder brother of the victim, Geofrey Chuwang, who was at his bedside, said: “The boy came home from school to collect money for food. He was already returning to school when he was shot.
“He was being escorted out of the village to where he could get a motor bike. All of a sudden, an armoured vehicle of the Special Task Force was coming towards them, and before they knew it, the soldiers opened fire and a bullet caught the innocent boy in the eye.
“It was yesterday that the doctors conducted the second operation on the eye. They were not sure if the boy would be able to see with the eye again. He was never a part of any conflict. He was shot at about 11 am on Tuesday.”
Chuwang, who also witnessed the crisis at Bisichi village, said: “Most of the killings during the attack were carried out by men of the Special Task Force and armed Fulani men. While the crisis in the village intensified, some youths went to convey a 90-year-old man from the village to another village where he would be safe. But a stray bullet hit him on their way and the old man died immediately.”
Reliving the violent incident, Bot, the youth leader of Bisichi community, said the same Fulani who hired mercenaries to attack our people were also the ones who lied to the Special Task Force that they were being attacked by the Berom. “In response, the STF mobilised to hunt for Berom youths, and without hearing from us, the soldiers opened fire wherever they saw two people standing while armed Fulani men went behind to attack some other villages.
“I can tell you the truth that soldiers of the STF opened fire on three Berom youths. They killed two of them while the third one escaped with bullet wounds. The same Fulani people mounted road block on the highway and attacked every motorist they saw. They killed two other Berom students found in one vehicle. They also headed to a farm where they shot and killed one old man by name Markus Dung.
“The truth is that the STF aided the Fulani in killing many of our people. Apart from that, the Fulani took advantage of the soldiers’ support to enter into our farmlands to destroy maize farms.
“There was a case where we reported to security agencies that we saw an armed Fulani man grazing his cattle on a farm. The Fulani man took to his heel on seeing that soldiers were coming to arrest him. While he was running, the magazine attached to his gun fell down and the soldiers picked it up. It was confirmed that the magazine contained 56 rounds of ammunition.”
Fulani community leaders, speaking through the Secretary of Cattle Breeders Association, also known as Miyeti Allah, Adam Muhammed, said: “The Berom are only lying so as to cover up their own actions. We had earlier reported that seven of our men were killed by Berom youths without provocation. That was the action that provoked the violence, because we cannot wait until the Berom had killed all of us.
“If not for the security agencies, the Berom would have wiped out the Fulani from these communities.”
Considering the weight of the attacks on their kinsmen, the Berom Youth Moulders Association (BYM) has called on the Federal Government to ensure that justice is done over what they described as unprovoked attack in Bisichi village.
A press statement signed by Chuwang, the President of the group, and the Secretary, Davou Gyang, demanded that those arrested by the STF in the course of the violence should be prosecuted for peace to reign in the locality and to serve as deterrent to others.
The group said the militia Fulani did not only attack Berom homes and farms, they blocked the highway and attacked innocent travellers on Barkin Ladi Road. They alleged that at least 10 travellers were attacked and killed on the federal highway by some unknown gunmen last week in Bisichi village during the four-day carnage.
The Berom youths also alleged that some Fulani headsmen suspected to have carried out the attacks on the highway were arrested by men of the Special Task Force (STF) code named Operation Safe Haven.
The statement added: “We are seeking the intervention of the federal government in this case because very soon, the suspected militia caught by the Special Task Force will bribe their way and will be released and they will escape justice.
“The federal government should make the STF to disclose the identity of the suspected terrorist group. Any attempt to allow them to go scot-free will attract serious protest across the state, because these are some of the unknown gunmen who attack us at night.”
Dalyop noted that “while we commend members of the STF for this laudable feat, we wish to caution against any attempt to release these culprits without the law taking it full course on them. And any attempt in that regard shall be vehemently resisted within the ambit of the law.”
The statement noted that, “Recently, 30 Berom Villages were razed completely and over 800 inhabitants of these villages killed. Among them were school principals, senior civil servants, farmers, traders, students and artisans who were ambushed in diverse locations while going about their legitimate duties, and over 500 inhabitants rendered homeless by the Fulani militias.
“We wish to emphatically draw the Federal and Plateau State governments’ attention to these callous activities of the militias, which has over the years truncated the peace and serenity of Barkin-Ladi and parts of Jos South LGA without concerted efforts by the security outfits to thwart the persistent annihilation of the Berom nation by the heavily armed terrorists.
“We wish to make it clear that we shall not continue to preach peace and harmony while we fold our arms and watch our enemies evict us from out territories, leaving us with the option of seeking refuge in other people’s lands. The government must live up to its task of guaranteeing security in all the troubled areas or else we seek possible ways of self defence and protection of our cherished heritage.”
Meanwhile, the member representing Barkin Ladi/Riyom Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Istifanus Gyang, has appealed to both the Berom and the Fulani to sheathe their swords for peace to reign in the constituency.
Reacting to the renewed violence in the constituency, the federal lawmaker said: “Our internal peace effort is failing because of external factors. The invasion by militia men from outside the state is causing us serious problems. That is why we have some discordant voices on this crisis.
“The discordant voices can be categorised into three: those who have objective understanding of the underlying factors and are genuinely desirous of finding a lasting solution; those who are ignorant and express their ignorance on the issue and those whose perspectives are informed by prejudice, sentiment, partisanship and hate.”
He added: “In morality and in law, wrong is wrong and right is right irrespective of who does it or who it affects. That is why neither God nor law has respect for persons. I am therefore calling on all men of goodwill who are advocates of peace to join me in my commitment to rebranding Barkin Ladi-Riyom Federal Constituency of Plateau State from an axis of violence and bloodshed to one of peace and prosperity. May we rise beyond ethnic and religious sentiment and become advocates of national integration, peace and harmonious coexistence.”
Hon Gyang also said: “My constituents who elected me, including Berom, Atten, Attakar, Hausa, Fulani, Ngas, Taroh, Mwaghavul, Ron, Idoma and Yoruba, they did so on the basis of a clear legislative agenda that gave primacy to the restoration of peace and security to the people. You can therefore only imagine the pain in my heart when the attacks and killings are persisting.
“Options available to us in resolving this problem are twofold. The first is the deployment of conventional security of the military and police to vulnerable communities to protect law abiding citizens and end the attacks.
“It was with this in mind that I raised a motion on the floor of the House and placed a demand on government under President Mohammadu Buhari, being the one that has the constitutional responsibility to protect every citizen, to issue a clear directive to the military high command to act decisively to end the attacks. Once this is done, it will create an enabling environment for the peace option to materialise.
“We have elaborate peace architecture at the level of advocacy and practice by which we shall partner with state and non-state actors in constructive community dialogue towards the attainment of lasting peace through mediation, conciliation and healing of fractured relationships.”
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