The paramount ruler of the Tiv nation, His Royal Majesty Professor James Ayatse has disclosed that marauding suspected armed Fulani herders have taken over several portions of lands in his domain of Kwande and Gwer West areas of Benue State, killing people and displacing thousands.
Professor Ayatse said the affected areas are Kwande where four wards have been seized and Gwer West where 15 wards have been clutched by the suspected armed herdsmen.
Amnesty International data recorded between January 2023- February 2024, indicate that insecurity has left over 2,600 dead in the state with the victims being mainly women and children.
In recent months, there has been a surge in violence in Benue, with suspected Fulani herdsmen attacks killing over 100 people in just a few weeks, with significant destruction of property across multiple communities in the state.
Speaking at the Government House in Makurdi, the Benue State capital during a programme televised on national television and monitored by our correspondent, the Tor Tiv said “In my domain, in Kwande, they have taken over more than four wards and staying.
“In my domain in Gwer West, almost all the 15 wards in Gwer West have been taken over and the people have run to Naka. And there is kidnapping and road blockage every day. That is not a culture that we can accommodate in Benue State.”
The paramount ruler challenged a prominent group of the Fulanis in Nigeria, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria
(MACBAN), to call their members to order and end the dastardly act of wanton killings of innocent people.
He said “So, MACBAN, deal with your internal issues. If you cannot say that they are madmen and you don’t know them, you know them. They dress like you, they talk like you. They carry AK-47s like you. You can’t deceive us. If they are talking like you, walking like you, carrying guns like you, killing us like you. How can you say that you are not part of them?
“So, first deal with the mad men among you and come and present yourself clean, we will accept you. We have always done, it’s just that things have changed,” the Tor Tiv said.
He continued “I want to appreciate the representative of MACBAN that spoke here. The difficulty in what we are dealing with. You are talking about killers, killer herders, and criminals.
“It is a situation where the mechanics are there and the madmen have joined them. They all dress in the same way. So, if you come here and tell us that there are a few criminal elements that have joined the herders, they are spoiling the show for all of you.
“The model you have to first do is to drive away the madmen among you. Any other story you tell us without doing it is playing to the gallery. If you have mad men among you, you know them, deal with the madmen. Let the mechanics that we know.
“The mechanics we know in my illustration were the original herders we knew that come, growing in this environment, come only with staff to guide herds so that they will not destroy farms. That’s the herders.
“In one of our meetings of Northern Traditional Rulers some years ago, a traditional ruler rose and made a statement you made today, and my heart jumped. He said you cannot change the culture of a people overnight.
“What culture are you talking about? Is it a culture of killing? What culture are you talking about? Is it the nomadic culture of moving up and down? That culture didn’t have problems. That culture didn’t seem to take over our lands. That culture didn’t seem to kill us. That culture didn’t seem to destroy our farms, or our livelihoods. That is not the culture we know.
“What we have now, are criminal herders, carrying assault rifles, killing our people, maiming them, raping them, our women and our daughters, dispossessing us of our lands, and even when we harvest our crops and take them home, they come to our homes, destroy our houses, bring out our harvest for their cows to eat. Is that a culture? I beg to differ.
“Any culture that is killing people, maiming people, taking over their livelihoods, burning their property, does not require one-second notice. That culture must end immediately.
If you come with herds, we will show you where the land is fertile, the grass is green, and you will eat but if you come right on our farms, people are busy working and you are killing them, you are destroying our livelihoods, our farmlands, a whole year’s labour is destroyed, that’s an alien culture that cannot be tolerated in our environment.
“So, for your people, the model I say is that let the mechanics join hands and deal with the madmen. Then, we will accept you. We have always done that in the decades past, where if a cow strayed, destroyed any farm, they will come quickly, settle, pay compensation, and move on.”
