As the murderous activities of suspected Fulani herdsmen rage from one part of the country to the other, Nigerians are expressing concern over the real source of the dangerous weapons with which these bloody campaigns are prosecuted.
This is even as the menace of the Fulani herdsmen has been identified as perhaps the most dangerous threat to the safety of lives and property in the country.
“The menace of so-called ‘Fulani herdsmen’ is now perhaps the most dangerous threat to the safety of lives and property in Nigeria. The herdsmen have been at it for the past few years, especially in central Nigeria, but the scale of their ‘activities’ is now unquestionably national!” says Opeyemi Agbaje, a public policy analyst.
“One global report has reportedly counted the ‘herdsmen’ (who carry AK 47 rifles which reportedly cost around N400,000.00 each!) as the world’s fourth most lethal ‘terrorist group’ measured by the number of people killed!” he adds.
Amid reactions from governors of the states of Northern Nigeria suggesting that the perpetrators of these murderous campaigns may not all be Fulani herdsmen, Nigerians are also asking who they really are. Are they herdsmen, a band of criminals, mercenaries or Boko Haram escapees?
One analyst tells BDSUNDAY that from all indications, these murderers, whoever they are, are being stoked by tribal rhetoric and their narrative driven by a fifth columnist.
Many Nigerians are also questioning why and when the Fulani herdsmen, who used to drive their cattle with sticks, began to carry AK47s, and where they got these weapons from.
“One thing is very clear: these herdsmen are not the owners of the cattle they rear, there are some big men, maybe sacred cows, behind them. Anyone who really wants to know the sources of these weapons should look for who these big men are,” says an analyst who spoke anonymously.
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“That is the same reason why the illegal oil bunkering and pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta have defied all efforts to stop them. There are big men behind the scene who send the small boys and supply them with weapons,” he says.
BDSUNDAY further inquiries, however, revealed that these murderers may have got their weapons from returning soldiers who took part in the crisis occasioned by the Arab Spring.
A close source to BDSUNDAY says he suspects that the weapons found with the herdsmen could be the cache of weapons shipped across the Sahara Desert, either by professional gun-runners or those individuals who were a fragment of a highly trained Libyan Armed Forces.
The source says the style of their attacks on villages, children and women underscore their professional/military training, defined by systematic targeting, rape, stealing, kidnapping and murdering.
The weight of this suggestion, says the source, is underlined by the way and manner the monarch of Ubulu-Uku in Delta State was kidnapped and murdered by the herdsmen in January this year. The manner of abduction, in September last year, of Olu Falae, a former presidential aspirant, a former finance minister and a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, at his Ilado farm in Akure, Ondo State, also lends credence to this suggestion.
The Agatu massacre is reminiscent of the ISIS’ bloody attack on Aleppo, Iraq, says the source who spoke to BDSUNDAY. The Enugu ethnic cleansing also not only underscores the blood-thirsty attribute of these criminals but also their penchant for destruction.
The worrying aspect of all of these developments, however, is the citizens’ loss of confidence in the state to provide the needed protection as guaranteed in the nation’s constitution.
Meanwhile, the seemingly feeble response from the presidency to a matter that has become cancerous and is capable of snowballing into a full-scale civil war should the affected parts of the country choose to rise in self-defence has continued to attract sharp condemnation.
“The massacre of hundreds in Agatu, Benue State is yet to attract a definitive response from the government of Nigeria, which itself now stands accused at the International Criminal Court (ICC) of massacring up to a thousand Shiites in Zaria, Kaduna State. It is curious and inexplicable that till today, Nigeria has not arrested or prosecuted a single herdsman for the atrocities committed all over the nation,” says Agbaje.
“On the other hand, many members of Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), who at least for now are yet to start an armed insurrection, have been killed by security forces. Meanwhile, regarding the herdsmen, the strategy appears to resemble official blackmail and terrorism – ‘agree to provide grazing routes for the herdsmen through your areas, or they will continue to kill you!’” he adds.
A source, however, informed BDSUNDAY at the weekend that the presidency may have decided to take decisive measures to put the herdsman to rout as a result of negative publicity the ugly development has attracted against the government of the day.
“I want to confirm to you that the president is thoroughly embarrassed by the negative publicity the herdsmen activities are attracting to his government. A lasting solution is in the offing. In the next few days, you will be hearing some decisive measures put in place to end the unfortunate trend,” the source said.
“The presidency has maintained that the herdsmen’s activities were not ethnically motivated. We can now see that the killings by the so-called Fulani herdsmen cut across geo-political zones. It happened in Agatu, Benue State; in Taraba; Jos; Enugu and we also hear of their activities in parts of Kaduna State. So, that has rested the argument that it is ethnic-motivated,” the source added.
