John Shiklam, in Kaduna, writes that the heavy security deployment in southern Kaduna has done little to reassure the natives that they are safe from the incessant attacks by Fulani herdsmen, which has killed over 200 people in the last few weeks
At last, the federal government has deployed massive security personnel to southern Kaduna to try to bring an end to the mindless killings and destructions that have rocked the area for over five years. It took a protest in Kafanchan and subsequent declaration of a 24-hour curfew in the area by the Kaduna State government to attract the attention of the federal government to the massacre that went on unabated in the area.
Governor Nasir El-Rufai had visited Kafanchan last December 20 on a peace mission. That was when his convoy was attacked by angry youths. The youths, who had earlier staged a protest the previous day in Kafanchan, were demonstrating against the persistent killings in southern Kaduna. El-Rufai went on the visit with the deputy governor, Mr. Barnabas Bala Bantext, top government officials, and heads of security agencies in the state to commiserate with victims of the attack. But irate youths attacked his convoy with stones as he was leaving Kafanchan.
Killer Herdsmen
Southern Kaduna and, indeed, the entire Middle Belt states of Plateau, Benue, Taraba and Nasarawa, including Zamfara State and some parts of southern Nigeria have of late been at the receiving end of brutal killings by herdsmen. Some of the killers are alleged to be foreigners.
In the latest incidents in southern Kaduna, most of those killed were women, children and the aged who could not run each time the killers surrounded their homes, opening fire on defenceless natives and burning their houses. Farms were either destroyed by the herders’ cows or set ablaze by the herdsmen.
The level of barbarism was said to be such that pregnant women were slaughtered, with their wombs ripped open and their unborn babies removed and cut to pieces.
Casualty
The leadership of the Catholic Arch Diocese of Kafanchan, in a recent statement, put the number of deaths at 808 people, killed in 53 villages in the five local government areas affected by the attacks, namely Kaura, Zangon Kataf, Jama’a, Sanga and Kauru. The statement was jointly signed by the Vicar General of the Diocese, Rev. Fr. Ibrahim Yakubu; the Chancellor, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Okolo; Rev. Fr. Aaron Tanko; Rev. Fr. Williams Abba; and President, Laity Council, Mr. Joseph Bayei (KSJ).
But Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, disputed the figure released by the church, saying the killings would be investigated. Idris told journalists during a visit to Kafanchan that a panel would be set up from Abuja to investigate the crisis, “including allegations made by some groups claiming that 800 people died.”
Security Build-up
The IGP announced plans to establish a police squadron in Kafanchan to facilitate quick response to the attacks.
Troops have also been deployed to the area, with a promised by the Nigerian army to establish a permanent military formation in Kafanchan for quick response to any security issue. El-Rufai said two military formations would be located in southern Kaduna and two others in Birnin Gwari area in the northern part of the state.
“We are talking with the president, the Minister of Defence and the Chief of Army Staff to locate two military formations in southern Kaduna; one in Fadan Karshi in Sanga and the second one in Kauru Local Government Area,” the governor said.
Doubts
But the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union has expressed reservations about the sincerity of the proposed security establishments in the area. President of SOKAPU, Solomon Musa, a lawyer, told THISDAY that the southern Kaduna people had been agitating for the establishment of military formations in the area for a very long time, but the authorities never paid attention to their demand. Musa expressed scepticism about the security measures taken by government regarding the attacks, saying it is not done in good faith.
“If it is true that the security has been deployed in good faith, how come a 24-hour curfew was imposed and Goskwa community, which is just about five kilometres away from Kafanchan, was attacked on Christmas day?” he queried. “We are suspicious of the real purpose of deploying these security personnel. Have they been deployed to stop our people from defending themselves from those attacking them and committing genocide? There are a lot of questions that we have.”
Musa advocated the involvement of the communities in the security strategies, by establishing a Civilian Joint Task Force, like the one assisting the security agencies in the fight against Boko Haram in the North-east. This, he said, is to avoid cases of fake agents going about killing people and prevent some elements within the security services from compromising and causing further havoc.
A former Commissioner of Justice in the state, Mr. Mark Nzama, said a military base was long overdue in southern Kaduna.
“The military base is a long term solution. That is what we have been advocating all along. But to address the emergency situation on the ground, a strike force that is similar to what was done in the case of Birnin Gwari should have been immediately commissioned to take charge of the bushes,” he said.
He also expressed serious reservations about the manner security agents were operating in the area.
“Can you imagine that just two days ago, the attackers came out from their hideout and were shooting sporadically in one of the villages and there was no response?” Nzama wondered. He also called for the setting up of a civilian JTF in southern Kaduna.
“I have some level of confidence in the fact that there is a deployment of men and resources to southern Kaduna, but I have a quarrel; the soldiers and the police are only within the main roads or Kafanchan town.
“The attackers are not inside the town, they are in the bushes and these bushes are well known. The attackers ought to be confronted where they are,” Nzama said. “Those who attacked Gwoska on Christmas Day were wearing military uniforms. That was why when the villagers saw them they didn’t take over because they thought they were normal security personnel.”
In the same vein, the Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Kafanchan, Rt. Rev. Markus M. Dogo, lamented that the security agencies seemed to have a wrong perception of the problem and expressed doubts about their ability to stop the killings.
“I think they have a wrong conception of the whole problem,” he said. “This fire brigade approach was because Dangoma village, a Fulani community, was attacked. As I am talking to you, there are killings going on in the bushes.”
Dogo added, “There are a lot of military and the police deployed to for security, but they are stationed in Kafanchan. We don’t have problem in Kafanchan town. All that happened in the town was that the youths staged a protest over the killings, they were stoned by some people during the protest.
“The governor came the next day, he was insulted and stoned, that was why they brought the police in Kafanchan. I don’t think the security personnel would be able to stop the killings by staying in Kafanchan town.
“When the IGP came to Kafanchan, he was limiting the attacks to Dangoma and Gwoska, which were attacked just recently.
“I told him that the issue is not about what happened on December 19. I told him that the problem started in April 2016. Honestly speaking, I don’t think they are near the problem at all.”
Denial
However, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, the umbrella union of the herdsmen, claimed its members were being unjustly accused of perpetrating the crisis in southern Kaduna and maligned. At a recent news conference in Kaduna, the assistant secretary general of MACBAN, Dr. Ibrhahim Abdullahi, said some of the claims against the herdsmen were fictitious. Abdullahi alleged that the southern Kaduna people had also killed herdsmen. “As an association whose members have been unjustifiably accused and maligned, we think that it is time for us to make our stand and set the record straight for posterity,” he stated.
Abdullahi said the 2011 post-election violence affected not only the indigenous Fulani in southern part of Kaduna State but also herdsmen coming from other areas. He called on the people of southern Kaduna to forgive what had happened, noting that the crisis will never end unless both parties learn to forgive.
Abdullahi said the current crisis started in April 2016 following an argument between two herdsmen, on one side, and a farmer, on the other, in Ninte village, Godogodo District, in Sanga Local Government Area, over cattle route, which led to a fight. He argued that both parties were wounded and were taken to the hospital for treatment, adding that one of the Ardos (Fulani chiefs) from the area volunteered to pay for the treatment of the wounded Fulani men, “but some youths organised themselves, killed the Ardo, set him ablaze and burnt about 67 of Fulani settlements.”
Abridged Settlement
The late governor of the state, Mr. Patrick Yakowa, had tried to stop the killings. He, too, was held hostage and his convoy stoned by angry youths in Zonkwa when he went to visit victims of an attack in the hospital. Yakowa was said to have constituted a team that was going round the Fulani communities to preach peace and reconciliation.
However, following Yakowa’s death in a helicopter crash in December 2012, his successor, Alhaji Ramalan Yero, did not sustain the peace efforts. Yero’s lacklustre administration witnessed massive killings in Kaura, Zangon Kataf and Sanga local government areas, especially in Bondong, Attakad and several villages in Sanga.
Yero never had any strategy for stopping the killings and rarely visited any of the communities that were attacked until the 2015 elections approached. Then he visited Sanga, where protesting women came out nude to express their disappointment over his nonchalant attitude to the killings. The killings subsided following the emergence of El-Rufai as governor, until May 2016, when an incident in Ninte village, Godogodo district of Sanga, escalated to yet another round of killings, which went on unabated, despite several efforts by the governor to bring about peace.
El-Rufai Era
The governor had earlier set up a committee headed by a former Chief of Defence Staff and an indigene of the area, Gen. Martin Luther Agwai (rtd), to identify the causes of the attacks and make recommendations.
El-Rufai said his administration had done everything, including locating the herdsmen in Niger Republic, Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Senegal to persuade them to stop the killings. He said “a lot of what was happening in southern Kaduna was actually from outside Nigeria. We got a hint that the late Governor Patrick Yakowa got this information and he sent someone to go round some of these Fulani communities, but, of course after he died, the whole thing stopped. That is what we inherited. But the Agwai committee established that.”
The governor’s recent disclosure that some of the herdsmen were compensated over the alleged killing of their cattle, as part of efforts to end the attacks, was greeted with scathing criticisms and condemnation, especially in southern Kaduna, where no compensation was paid to any of the victims of the attacks.
El-Rufai said the current problem started in Ninte village, Godogodo, following the failure of community leaders from both sides to address the matter amicably, stressing, “As a government, we regret the loss of lives. We regret the destruction of property.”
The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, which helped in bringing peace to Plateau State, which was also plagued by herdsmen attacks, has been involved in the efforts to find lasting peace in the area. But the governor alleged that some people were bent on frustrating the peace efforts.
Many believe that unless decisive steps are taken against the deadly activities of the herdsmen causing havoc in southern Kaduna and other parts of the country, Nigeria could be plunged into a crisis that may threaten its very existence.
