Farmers/herders: Afenifere disagrees with Tinubu’s call on Govs to allocate land to herders

The group, in a statement made available to Vanguard in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, said the proclamation lacks equity, justice and it is an insult on human dignity.

It noted that the proclamation was a sad confirmation that the President is merely repetitive of the spurned and irritable policy of “your land or your life” policy behind the Buhari RUGA scheme, which failed woefully as it demeans humanity, saying that it will fail again because the indigenous peoples of Nigeria will never roll over and die for invaders, terrorists to take over their ancestral lands.

The statement, signed by the National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Mogaji Gboyega Adejumo, reads, “a situation where an intruder, unsolicited, uninvited, is armed with assault weapons of war proportions, come into your land, your ancestral land, to kill you, maim you, destroy your family, disrupt your living standards, destroy your livelihood, cannot with reason and cognition, be called a “clash”.

“Mr. President, the whole world is watching. This is no time for political correctness as Nigeria faces huge existential threats by those feeling entitled. Our people will never allow institutionalized terrorists to roam free and be pampered just as the previous administration did. When you choose to call a disease by another name your prescription will always be wrong”.

“This was the same kind of tragedy that played out in the initial days of the emergence of Boko Haram with all the bombings, slaughtering and killings. The so called Borno elders came out stoutly defending them, holding press conferences in which they were pleading that members of the deadly group were their children and not terrorists”.

“In 2022, these distinct group of terrorists, killed 4,545 farmers and kidnapped 4,616”.

“A painstaking breakdown of the atrocities of the herders against farmers shows Northern parts of Nigeria having the highest numbers of farmers killed with 3574 (78.75%) of total persons killed. The Northwest recording the highest number of deaths, 1524. The Middle Belt, 1390. The NorthEast, 660. The SouthEast, 449. The South South, 276, and SouthWest, 246. In terms of abduction and kidnappings, the NorthWest had the highest number, 3902 persons, representing 84.5%, while the Southern Zones accounted for 15.5%  representing 714 persons kidnapped and abducted out of the total”.

 

“The states, mainly of the Middle-Belt of Niger, Plateau, Southern Kaduna, Benue and Zamfara were the living hotbeds of killings in 2022 as they accounted for 40% of the total number of wanton killings by the so called herders. Niger state reported the highest number of persons, 604, Zamfara, 565, Kaduna, 507, Benue, 333”.

“A follow up report from the same authentic source submitted that in 2023, a total of 3841 persons were killed, 4243 persons kidnapped. Again, Northern states had the highest number killed with 83.8% of the total number, Southern states recorded, 16.2%. In the MiddleBelt, Plateau state had the highest number killed, 502 persons. Zamafara reported the highest number of abductions, 854 persons. Benue, 482, Borno, 42”.

 

“Mr. President, these numbers are horrifying. In all sincerity, these killings do not come from clashes, but from deliberate, intentional, organized system of elimination by these terrorists”.

“In May 2023, more than 200 farmers were killed in Mangu in Plateau State. In December of same 2023, yet another set of over 200 villagers, mainly farmers were killed in the Christmas Eve orgy of violence unleashed on weak, poor and hapless villagers in Mangu and Bokkos on the Plateau”.

“As at February 2024, no fewer than 47 Local Government Areas in the Northwest Nigeria, are troubled by Terrorists, who terrorize, kidnap and kill innocent citizens. The LGA’s most affected by Terrorist activities in the NorthWest zone include 18 in Katsina, 11 in Sokoto, 10 in Zamfara and 8 in Kaduna”.

Afenifere noted that a stop must be put to the denial of such clear acts of terrorism by the herders, emphasizing that such acts must be treated as acts of terror.

 

“There can be no justice nor honor in a policy of submitting the land to placate land grabbers, more so that there are far too many instances where the herders have taken over the lands and villages where farmers and villagers, the original owners of the land have been driven away to live on various IDP camps”.

“It has been revealed that Fulani herdsmen have started renaming the villages that they have attacked and taken over already, whilst the original land owners in their hundreds of thousands remain Internally Displaced”.

“Mr. President, when the alarm was raised many years back, your predecessors were complacent, calling it mere ethnic crisis. It is now time to face our reality; the subtle attacks which began over a decade ago have seen native communities in many parts of the country taken over by invading herders”.

“Mr. President, you cannot even begin to give land to certified terrorists and land grabbers, please”.

“You must do everything to bring these unfortunate ones that have been turned refugees safely back into their ancestral lands. This is a duty that you owe to the long suffering victims of the herders terror.

“These are clear acts of terror and the earlier President Tinubu addresses himself to the untainted diagnoses of full terrorism, what we will have as the Leader Pa Ayo Adebanjo predicted of Tinubu’s presidency, is a mere continuation of the complicit Buhari Administration”.

“These herders/terrorists must therefore be fought, caught, tossed to the courts and brought to justice.