Resurgence of Attacks by Criminal Herdsmen

After a short break following the end of the tenure of the past administration, armed herdsmen have resumed their reign of terror in the southern parts of Nigeria and the Middle Belt, as recently manifested in their attacks in Nasarawa, Benue, Ondo, Edo, Bayelsa and Enugu states, Ejiofor Alike reports

Nigerians had witnessed the influx of heavily-armed criminal herdsmen from the neighbouring Niger Republic, Mali and Senegal who unleashed terror across the country as soon as former President Muhammadu Buhari assumed power in 2015.

The preferential treatment given to these criminal herders by the government apparently lent credence to the claims that the killers were invited by the agents of the administration shortly before the 2015 general election.

While the herdsmen were unleashing terror on indigenous communities, the leaders of the herdsmen were freely boasting publicly that the attacks were reprisals for the killing of their cattle by the affected communities.

On its part, the Buhari government was plotting different official strategies to force these traumatised communities to cede their ancestral lands to the invaders.

The proposed creation of cattle colonies, Ruga settlements, as well as the enactment of the Water Resources Bill were some of the failed efforts to force indigenous communities to cede their lands for the permanent settlement of these foreign herders.

The late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State had mobilised the 16 other southern governors to successfully resist this land-grabbing mission.

Following the obvious backing of the foreign herders by the federal security agencies, South-west governors created a local security outfit, Amotekun Corps, while their counterparts in the South-east created Ebubeagu to tackle the rising insecurity in their states.

In the Middle Belt, former Governor Samuel Ortom created the Benue State Livestock Guards, which brought him on a collision course with Buhari’s government.

While armed herdsmen carried sophisticated AK-47 rifles freely, security agencies clamped down on communities that procured smaller arms to protect themselves.

Apparently due to the official support enjoyed by the killer herdsmen under the Buhari administration, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in one of his two new books, ‘Nigeria: Past and Future,’ alleged that Buhari shielded and provided cover for certain criminal elements that terrorised the nation when he was in power.

In chapter 11 of the book, which was unveiled recently, Obasanjo disclosed that Buhari was selective in determining the criminal groups the military must fight, adding that this to a large extent exacerbated the nation’s insecurity challenge.

Obasanjo wrote: “The Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces and all the paramilitary is the President.

“Under President Buhari, serious and seemingly undeniable allegations were made that the military were not even-handed in dealing with criminals and criminal groups in the country.

“There were favourite criminals and criminal groups of the President Buhari administration who must be treated with velvet knuckles and those who must be treated with hammer knuckles.”

Obasanjo, who cited the allegations made by General T. Y. Danjuma (rtd) that terrorists and criminal elements freely committed heinous crimes while the military did nothing to stop them, wrote: “That would be the greatest undermining of peace and security from the highest level and that would make all other exercises fruitless and abortive. What a great and monumental tragedy!”

Indeed, Buhari politicised insecurity to the extent that the appointment of heads of security agencies was characterised by incompetence and nepotism.

However, with President Bola Tinubu’s assumption of office, herdsmen suspended their attacks as it was obvious to them that the new administration was not going to condone their atrocities.

To address some of the challenges facing the legitimate Nigerian herders, President Tinubu created the Ministry of Livestock Development on July 9, 2024, and also improved security nationwide.

Though the herders sustained their criminal attacks in Benue State, forcing Governor Hyacinth Alia to launch a 5,000-man new security outfit known as the Benue State Civil Protection Guards (BSCPG), and a Joint Security Task Force named “Operation Anyam Nyor”, the attacks abated in the southern parts of the country.

However, recent incidents across some southern states and the Middle Belt showed that the blood-sucking demons have resumed their atrocities.

For instance, angry protesters carrying dead bodies of five slain farmers last Wednesday shut down Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of Ondo State’s office at Alagbaka, Akure, the state capital, over the killing of the five farmers by armed herdsmen at Aba Oyinbo in Akure North Local Government Area (LGA).

Armed herders had in the previous week attacked four communities in the dead of the night in the same Akure North LGA of the state, slaughtering 20 people.

Nine surveyors were also abducted by herdsmen at a building site at Ilu Abo Community in the same LGA, fueling protests by hundreds of women, who took to the streets of Akure, calling the state governor, Aiyedatiwa, to intervene.

No fewer than 20 persons were also reportedly killed this month during an attack by herders that left scores wounded, houses, motorcycles, and a police operational vehicle set ablaze in Nasarawa LGA of Nasarawa State.

On March 9, two residents of Dantata Life Camp in Aviele, Etsako West LGA of Edo State, were reportedly abducted, one was hospitalised, and three others suffered machete wounds when herders invaded the camp at about 8 pm.

In Bayelsa State, the Leader of the Supreme Egbesu Congress, Comrade Teimowei Ebi had on Tuesday, led aggrieved women of Yenizue-Gene and Okutukutu communities in Yenagoa LGA of the state to barricade the Melford Okilo Road, in protest against alleged rape, harassment and destruction of crops and farmlands by the Fulani herdsmen.

The criminal herders have also sustained their attacks in Benue, with the latest incident being the recent ambush and killing of three personnel of the Civil Protection Guards in Naka, the headquarters of Gwer West LGA, which ignited protests and burning down of parts of the LG secretariat and the Palace of the Chairman of Gwer West traditional council, HRH Daniel Abomtse, by angry youths.

In Enugu State, angry women and youths also took to the streets in protests after herdsmen invaded Eha-Amufu community in Isi-Uzo LGA of the state, killing one Donatus Okafor, a university student and only child of his widowed mother, who was assisting his mother in the farm.

Isi-Uzo and Uzo-Uwani LGAs are the worst-hit LGAs in Enugu State by armed invaders, who use cattle rearing as a cover to gain easy access to communities.

It is now difficult to identify law-abiding herders as criminal herders also rear cattle while engaging in kidnapping, destruction of farmlands, rape, killing and other atrocities.

In recent weeks, videos of armed herdsmen guarding their cattle to graze on maize farms, and separate videos of armed herders harvesting cassava on farmlands for their cattle, have gone viral on social media.

To end these atrocities, state governors should enforce the ban on open grazing and implement their various anti-open grazing laws.

Gone are the days when state commissioners of police (CPs)and divisional police officers (DPOs) were scared of arresting herdsmen due to fear of punitive transfer and other forms of official victimisation.