It has been a harvest of tears in recent times in many communities in Delta State as rampaging herdsmen have ceaselessly wreaked havoc and created chaos.
Sunday Idama, a 50-year-old staff of the Delta State University, was recently murdered in cold blood on his farmland in Ovurie-Abraka Community in Urhrobo Kingdom of the state by suspected herdsmen after they fed their cattle with cash crops on the deceased’s farmland.
Also recently, Solomon Ejoor, a welder, was beheaded by alleged herdsmen in his native Urhuoka-Abraka community, sparking anxiety. Reports said villagers seized the decapitated body from police and took it to the palace of the Ovie of Oruarivie-Abraka where it was kept for over four hours. They threatened to lay siege on the Government House, Asaba, if Governor Ifeanyi Okowa did not break his silence on the Abraka killings.
The protesters destroyed cars and air conditioners at the palace, saying the monarch and his council of chiefs were not doing enough to stem the herdsmen’s attacks. It took the intervention of the army to save the palace from being torched. It was gathered that the fierce disposition of the villagers forced about 100 northerners, especially the Hausa/Fulani in Urhuoka-Abraka and the environs, to flee to the Abraka Police Station for safety.
The victim, Ejoor, was allegedly ambushed and decapitated when he went to the farm to rescue his mother who was held hostage by gun-toting herdsmen. The state police command confirmed the two incidents and promised investigation.
Abraka, one of the food baskets of the state, is a host community to the herdsmen because they depend on the community for the provision of basic needs such as grains, shelter and husks from harvest which have provided food for their animals for a very long time. The community, however, alleged that the herdsmen suddenly turned away from the long-standing, mutually-beneficial relationship by taking up arms against the community, a situation that has created many widows, widowers and orphaned children.
“For us to go to the farm is a problem. We are not allowed to visit our farms because once they meet you, they rape you. We are all afraid and that is why farming in our area has reduced,” lamented a native.
Samuel Okumagbe, chairman of Ogwuezi Quarters, Oghara, was also quoted to have lamented that the people have been persistently attacked. According to him, they have even lost count of the number of incidents and victims.
“We cannot access our farm at Abraka reserves since December. We borrowed money to establish the farm and when we wanted to harvest what we had planted earlier for sale in order to pay back our loan to Bank of Agriculture, we were denied access to our farms and that is the position in Abraka,” said another farmer, Eris Jewo.
Last month, Evance Ivwurie, lawmaker representing Ethiope East in the Delta State House of Assembly, alleged that an unidentified helicopter always delivered supplies inside the Ovre-Abraka desert in the state where Fulani herdsmen reside with their cattle.
State government seems helpless
It is no more news that Delta State communities and farmers are now at the mercy of herdsmen who have invaded and occupied their communities, destroying their farmlands culminating in deadly clashes that often claim lives of innocent citizens. The news is that in the face of the problem, Delta State Government seems helpless in the face of security being a federal matter. This has led to disruptions in farming activities in the areas mostly affected by the crisis as the farmers are afraid of being killed or raped on their farmlands. The situation has affected the socio-economic lives of the people in the sense that even farmers who borrowed funds for agricultural purpose are now counting their losses.
Speaking during a security meeting with stakeholders in Abraka, Ivwurie claimed that the desert had become a safe haven for thousands of herdsmen. He described the desert land across the River Ethiope as a time-bomb waiting to explode owing to the activities of herdsmen in the area.
The lawmaker, who recently launched his Operation Arrest, Meet and Engage Their Sponsor campaign against herdsmen in his constituency, said, “If you go there, there are more than 5,000 cattle with more than 2,000 herdsmen dwelling in the place. They carry all kinds of weapons and many unwholesome activities are going on there. I am aware of this and have taken the liberty to report the issue to the state government.”
Security is a national issue
The state government seems helpless not because it does not know how to tell its citizens to fight back; rather, its challenge lies in the fact that the herdsmen issue is a national issue which should be handled nationally.
In January this year, the governor had, while answering questions from journalists, noted, “The herdsmen issue with the communities is actually a problem. It is a problem across the country and not just in Delta State. Not less than 30 to 33 states are having this problem. It is something that we do not wish to continue to have but the problem is still there.
“Until as a country we are able to establish ranches where we will be able to rear the cattle, we cannot wish away this problem. Even if you try to stop the cattle from moving down to graze, with the desertification in the north, once it is dry season you begin to see owners of cattle through all parts of the country; and the constitution of this country does not allow you to stop somebody from another state coming into your state.”
“But the only thing is that we expect that people will be reasonable in whatever they are doing. Somebody should know what a grass is and what is not grass.”
Spreading the blame
Okowa seriously blamed the herdsmen for most of the attacks, just as he partly blamed natives.
“Obviously, the herdsmen have to be blamed but our people sometimes are to be blamed because some persons invite them to communities and show them lands that belong to them, whereas the land belongs to some other people but they would have collected money behind,” he said.
Solution in sight?
Okowa assured that the state would continue to work on how to solve the issues; how to get communities, engage them, get to the local government councils and also to the state level. He said a special assistant who is also a Fulani had been appointed to help on the issue.
“We also have a Special Adviser on Conflict Resolution who is trying to do a lot; and the Commissioner of Police is actually doing quite a lot, but sometimes you begin to have deadly clashes between these herdsmen and some of our people,” he said.
He recalled a deadly incident where the police moved into the bush in one of the places last December and tried to have exchange of gun-power. He described the situation as unfortunate but said the state was trying to handle it in such a way that there would be peace at the end of the day.
“What we will begin to do is for communities where you have them to actually ensure that these people are known to the communities with a kind of registration process so that people are not just living in your bush and you do not have information about them, so that with this relationship, it may be better to engage people in a peace process,” Okowa said.
He noted that there had been losses on both sides but that efforts were being made to resolve such problems, saying criminal elements also use the herdsmen to cover their bad activities.
“We are beginning to see a lot of them involved in kidnapping. Last December, about five of these people who live in the bush were arrested for kidnapping, etc, and those kidnap elements when arrested would be left in the hands of the law to take its full course,” he pledged.
On his part, the state commissioner for information, Patrick Ukah, called on the Federal Government and the Inspector General of Police, Idris Abubakar, to take urgent and proactive steps in disarming Fulani herdsmen in the state and elsewhere so as to prevent total breakdown of law and order in the country.
Ukah, in an interview in Asaba, decried the youth uprising that led to the vandalism of the palace of a royal father and other properties in Abraka communities, adding that the federal government and the law enforcement agents were not doing enough to stop the broad daylight slaughtering of innocent farmers across the state.
He assured that the state government would continue to prevail on the federal government to do something very urgent because the situation was taking a different dimension.
“The state government will not encourage our people and the youths to take laws into their hands but it is obvious that the police and APC Federal Government has shown sufficient lukewarm attitude towards the arrest and prosecution of the Fulani herdsmen who are regularly killing our men, raping women and defiling young girls in their farmlands after feeding their cattle with cassava, yams and other cash crops.
“This development is ridiculous and the state government is worried and concerned about the plight of our people and families affected by the criminal activities of Fulani herdsmen,” Ukah said.
He stated that the State House of Assembly is currently working on a bill in respect of the criminal activities of Fulani herdsmen in the state, assuring that by the time the bill is passed, Governor Okowa would not hesitate to sign it into law.
He said that the state government would continue to appeal to the people not to take laws into their hands, but that the security agents and the Buhari administration must realize that they are foot-dragging in the matter, which is why some persons are now left with the option of reprisals resulting in the wanton destruction of properties as a way of venting their anger.
Tension still high
As at the time of filing this report, tension was already high and some Deltans had expressed fear that the Grazing Reserve Bill might scale through at the House of Assembly.
But Governor Okowa allayed the fear, saying there won’t be grazing reserve in the state. He expressed strong belief that the legislators cannot pass a bill that is unacceptable to the people, recalling that Deltans had made it clear that they were not supporting any grazing reserve.
The governor, who spoke at the seventh synod of Ughelli Diocese of the Anglican Communion recently, said his administration had done a lot to ensure that clashes between herdsmen and Deltans were reduced to the barest.
“Possibly, there would have been much more killings if not for our consultations; we are also aware that most of the kidnapping in the state is being done by the Hausa/Fulani in connivance with some of our people,” he said.
“There are special courts for the speedy trial of kidnappers and anyone who is caught assisting them is liable to life imprisonment.”
Okowa commended security agencies, especially the police, for controlling crime in the state, urging them to do more.
Debtor farmers’ fate
On the fate of the farmers who had borrowed money from government for the purpose of agriculture but may not have good harvest so as to pay back their loans, the question being asked is whether there would be mercy for them.
Shimite Bello, executive secretary of the Delta State Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (DEMSMA), told BDSUNDAY that she needed total assessment of the entire situation before she could comment on it.
DEMSMA is the agency through which the state government empowers its citizens with soft loans which they must collect from participating banks and pay back based on the arrangements reached with the banks.
As affected communities see the state government as helpless in fighting the scourge, the state says it is doing its best but from the recent comments of the information commissioner, it seems obvious that no matter what step the state takes to fight the monster, the federal government is being looked upon for a lasting solution.
Watch and pray
However, Marcus Ibrahim, Anglican Bishop of Yola Diocese, who spoke on the topic ‘Watching and praying: The escape route from the dangers of our time’, urged Christians to pray harder to check the activities of Boko Haram, kidnappers and armed robbers, etc. He reiterated that “the time that we are in is evil time”.
