The Chief of Kona people in Jalingo local government area of Taraba state, Augustine Njanmeng, on Wednesday decried the occupation of 17 villages belonging to the people of Kona by the herdsmen.
Njanmeng made this known while briefing newsmen in his Palace in Jalingo, the Taraba state capital.
According to the Monarch, the herdsmen, who are carrying sophisticated weapons to shoot anyone insight, were comfortably grazing on the farmlands of the people who currently taking refuge in IDP camps.
The monarch called on both the government and international community to intervene in the crisis in order to bring the displaced persons back to their ancestral homes.
The Chief of Kona who complained that his two farms, for rice and maize measuring about 12 hectares, had been destroyed by the herdsmen, warned the government of an impending food crisis in the state, “if those displaced did not return home to continue with their farming.”
BusinessDay correspondent who visited some of the farms destroyed gathered that rice and maize farms running into tens of hectares were being grazed upon.
James Ayuba, one of the farmers whose farm had been destroyed by the herdsmen called on governments at all levels to end the crisis.
Sahabi Tukur, Taraba State Chapter Chairman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN), said he was not authorised by the national office to respond.
BusinessDay recalls that skirmishes between suspected herdsmen and Kona community claimed several lives and property in Jalingo and Ardo Kola Local Government Areas of the state leaving thousands in eight IDP Camps across
Nathaniel Gbaoron, Jalingo
