AGATU (Benue State) – It is generally accepted that peace is the most important ingredient needed in the preparation of the meal of progress. Peace and security are, arguably, man’s basic existential needs after food and shelter, and no society can progress in the absence of peace, justice and security.
However, all across Nigeria, reports continue to flow in of the seemingly endless clash between nomadic Fulani Herdsmen and agrarian farmers.
Our farmlands have become killing fields as Fulani Herdsmen holds the nation at the jugulars and threaten to tear to pieces our continuous unity as a nation. From the hills of the Jos plateau to the trough and plains of the Benue basin up to the sahel of Taraba and Kogi, down to the forest of the Niger-Delta, the story remains the same – bloodletting carried out by so-called herders using sophisticated weapons indicative of a nation at war.
“We are indeed at war as the present killings is just more than herders in search of food for their flock but a grand political scheme by the Fulani to intimidate and conquer the rest of the nation as did their forebear and grand conqueror , Uthma Dan Fodio”, a source said.
Reports reaching us from Okokolo community and other neighbouring communities in Agatu Local Government Area of Benue State have it that there have been major Fulani Herdsmen attacks that have left hundreds dead and thousands displaced.
These attacks, according to information reaching our news desk, have been on-going for some days and weeks now with the police and other security agencies appearing either helpless or incompetent or both.
Particularly hit in the present attack is Okokolo town where almost all the houses in the community were reportedly razed down by the marauding Herdsmen, some with whole family inside.
One of such houses affected is that of one of the youth community leaders and member of the youth executive council, Okonti Wilson. The said Okonti Wilson, who spoke to one of our news crew in his hiding place where he had fled in the wake of a gruesome attack at night in Okokolo town that left possibly hundreds dead, told our reporter that he heard sudden sporadic gunshots in the early hours of the morning and some suspected Fulani terrorists breaking down the door to his house. He narrated how he quickly escaped through a window but not before he was struck by a machete in his leg. Not many persons were as lucky as him as scores of people lost their lives in that single attack. The said Okonti Wilson further told our news crew that there was an ongoing targeting of all Agatu youth leaders by the Fulani herdsmen over issues which he told us related to the local government elections and that several leaders have been killed and that he has reasons to believe that the attack on him was a targeted one. The said Okonti Wilson, who is a house painter, only recently escaped being lynched by some Muslim fanatics who earlier attacked him for painting a church building.
The recent attack came immediately after the local government elections thereby fuelling suspicion that there are political reasons for these attacks.
The Hausa/Fulani settlers in the Benue-Plateau have long been agitating for some sort of recognition at the local level, the source added.
It would be recalled that the law, as it is presently operative, does not recognise settlers but indigenes only. This issue was, and remains at the heart of the Jos crisis.
The extent of damage done by this present round of attacks will fully be known in the coming days and weeks but it is our hope that our security operatives will be deployed to the present hotspot of Benue to avert further bloodshed and lost of innocent lives.
Our nation needs to do much more to demonstrate to the rest of us that we are all equal before the law. This has become necessary because these killings are committed with impunity coupled with the fact that no one single conviction has been made since Herdsmen attacks began.
Perhaps, former Senate president David Mark was right when he categorically said that the killings were politically motivated and deliberately targeted at the agrarian Christian farmers. Whatever it is, we should, at least ensure that these needless killings and wanton destruction of properties are brought to an end.
Meanwhile, Okokolo community and the whole of Agatu lie in waste as the whole place now look like a ghost town as people run for their safety.
Apart from the attack, there are reports of targeted killings of community youth heads who have organised a kind of militia resistance against the marauding Herdsmen.
As our nation goes through these throes, there seems to be no end in sight as the politics of herders’ hegemony and Fulani Islamist jihad continue to be allowed to ravage the nation under the guise of looking for food for the herders.
