The Chairman of MACBAN (North Central Zone), Danladi Ciroma, has described the Plateau killings as retaliatory.
He said, “These attacks are retaliatory. As much as I don’t
support the killing of human beings, the truth must be told that those
who carried out the attacks must be on a revenge mission.
“There have been recent reports of cow rustling and destruction of
farms between Berom farmers and Fulani herdsmen. The people carrying out
these criminal activities are well known to the communities but the
communities are hiding them.
“Fulani herdsmen have lost about 300 cows in the last few weeks – 94
cows were rustled by armed Berom youths in Fan village, another 36 cows
were killed by Berom youths. In addition to that, 174 cattle were
rustled and the criminals disappeared with them to Mangu.
“Since these cows were not found, no one should expect peace in the
areas. Even soldiers that went after the criminals to recover the
rustled cows were shot by the armed rustlers and eventually escaped with
all the cows.
“The government of Governor Lalong has done a lot to restore peace,
but the criminal elements hiding among their people are the ones
frustrating these peace efforts.
“Though the security agencies have tried, they need to do more by
being fair to all parties; they should not neglect any report presented
by Fulani of Berom because such report can lead to attacks and deaths if
not properly handled.
“Criminals thrive a lot in Berom communities, but when the Fulani,
who are always victims of their crime, react with attacks, they blame
the government.
“These communities have leaders, why hide the criminals? They should
fish out the criminals and hand them over to security agencies to avoid
death of innocent ones.
“As it is today, the Berom man cannot go to farm, the Fulani cannot
breed his cows in Berom land. This can be stopped if the security
agencies do more than what they are currently doing. The attacks will
stop as soon as the security agencies stop Berom youths from stealing
Fulani cows.”
Speaking in the same vein, the National President of MACBAN,
Muhammadu Kiruwa, on Monday condemned reprisal in any form but alleged
that Berom youths had recently killed five cattle merchants, stole their
cows, about N1m and set their vehicles ablaze.
According to him, the genesis of the crisis has been rampant attacks
and rustling of their cows by Berom youths in Barkin Ladi LGA.
Kiruwa made this allegation in an interview with The PUNCH.
He said, “The people have been stealing our cows and some of our
people who were coming from market were attacked. Five of them were
killed, they stole over N1m and up till now, the whereabouts of their
corpses have not been known. Let the security agencies go and find out
facts about this. That is the genesis of the crisis; every day, they
kill one, kill two. Now, they will go and attack again and say it is
Fulani people.
“Reprisal is not good. Let the government and security agencies
caution both parties and enter into dialogue. I don’t know who carried
out the attack on Barkin Ladi and other areas. But I know that Berom
people have attacked my people in town, while coming back from cattle
market.
“The situation (in Plateau State) is not good; we are not happy about
what is going on because the lives of people are being endangered, not
only Fulani or farmers, the lives of all Nigerians are in danger. We are
not happy, we are calling on the security agencies and government to
checkmate all these problems.
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