Farmers vs Herdsmen: Series III- In Benue, cows more important than human beings, citizens lament

In what appears to be a loss of faith in the government due to its reluctance to curtail the rampant killings of people by herdsmen in most parts of the country, some citizens of Benue State have raised the alarm over placement of priority on cattle at the expense of human beings, saying that “cows are now more important than the lives of human beings” in the state.

They also decried a situation where the Federal Government would prefer deploy soldiers to Zamfara State to protect animals from cattle rustlers while in Benue State where citizens are killed on daily basis by herdsmen, it is a difficult for President Muhammadu Buhari to send the police.

On January 1 and 2, 2018, about 75 farmers of Logo and Guma Local Government areas of the state were killed by suspected Fulani herdsmen and were given mass burial by the state government on January 12, 2018.

Investigations conducted by The Daily Times show that more than 12 villages in two local governments alone have been abandoned with nine totally razed down with no sign of economic activities, while many others have been abandoned for fear of attacks from alleged Fulani herdsmen.

In addition to this, over 1250 farmlands have been abandoned with more than 1020 of the farmlands razed down by the herdsmen.

Our findings showed that in Logo local government alone, seven communities that share boundaries have been razed down and abandoned. People from these communities have taken refuge in nearby communities of other states.

According to some of the citizens of the state, the herdsmen hold the cattle more important that whatever destruction caused to any man and properties means nothing to them as they speak to the cattle while the animals gesticulate with necessary response.

Even the state’s internally generated revenue (IGR) which the government has put much effort to make up for the loss in revenue from the allocation from the Federal Government has suffered set back as a result of the Fulani herdsmen persistent attack. In fact, some economists have put the loss in revenue from the Fulani herdsmen attack to over N60billion.

Also, Logo, which appears to bear most of the brunt of these attacks and now an epicenter of the herdsmen, has lost about 700 farmlands and seedlings.

Speaking on the effects of the Fulani attack on the state’s IGR, Mr. Igba Tyokase of the state’s Inland Revenue said: “Definitely, it has a way to diminish the IGR, the prove of having high IGR is been destroyed.

“We are talking of destruction of farmlands by these cows which is the people’s industry, this is where the state gets its revenue and they are been destroyed, how will the state grow its revenue should be our concern.

“The farm produce harvested from the farms are taken for sales and these are no more; definitely, the state will not grow. If the cows are destroying all these and there are no sales and food any more, the government will not generate revenue. The state’s revenue will go down”.

Mr. Terwase Akaya, a popular farmer from Logo Local Government Area also told The Daily Times that what has happened to them cannot be quantified as living is worthless without home and a source of livelihood.

He said, “I cannot quantify what has happened to us; we are now refugees in neighboring Nasarawa State without source of livelihood.

“We are farmers and the Fulanis and their most important cattle have come to force us out of our homes, killing us, destroying our farmlands. If we are to go back, where do we start from, what about the seedlings as the cows have eaten all the crops with nothing left.

“Benue is known as the food basket of the nation but I regret to tell you today that this food basket has been broken with what this massacre by the Fulani herdsmen has done to us.

“Of late, you discover that heads of cattle brought by ‘Herdsmen’ have diverted into people’s farmland to eat up these crops, destroying farmland, farm produce and everything in such a way that the acronym, ‘Food Basket of the Nation’ is becoming eroded because the farm that the food produce comes from, have been destroyed while the people do not have any other thing to do than farming.

“You know we would not want to sit down and watch our farm crops destroyed. Where interactions become available, you see fighting and the truth is that, the Fulanis are more sophisticated as they have the modern weapons, AK-47 and all sorts of dangerous weapons, so they always over power us”.

In the same vein, Mr. Timothy Tor Agbenda, a farmer in Guma Local Government Area, stated that Government should do something immediately before Benue and indeed the entire Middle Belt zone is wiped out by the herdsmen.

He said, “Now that the Fulani herdsmen are attacking and killing us, we are helpless as we do not have the kind of weapons they have and even if we do, the option is not to fight back but to bring in lasting peaceful solution. It was in the cause of looking for this peaceful solution that government came up with the ‘Anti-grazing law.

He said, “When the government enacted this law, ‘anti grazing’, the herdsmen union, ‘Miyetti Allah’ felt that it was a law that encroaches on their rights as they believe that they should be allowed to graze anywhere, anyhow.

“But the state government is saying that farming is our industry here, so you cannot graze anyhow to destroy our industry for if we allow you to do that, then we shall not have a livelihood anymore.

“As a people, we should look for a law that can curb that and that is the problem. The Federal Government should do something quickly before our state and indeed the entire middle belt zone is wiped out completely”.

Former Minister of State for Education and Chairman, Benue State Civil Service Commission who is also a stakeholder in the state, Prof. Jerry Agada, in his advice said; “Where you see things that are unbecoming of what is supposed to be prevalent of a state, report to the law enforcement agencies.

“With that, there will be peaceful co-existence. I also appeal to our brothers and sisters who also have cattle headed by herdsmen to talk to them to obey the laws enacted by the state because the state will not enact a law that will be detrimental to the welfare of its people. Let them advise the herdsmen to conform to the law of the land”.

Tom Okpe, Abuja