The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has said that the violent attacks on local communities and killings of farmers in Plateau, Benue and other states in the middle belt are perpetrated by foreign herders.
The director, Defence Media Operations, Major General Markus Kangye, stated this on Thursday while fielding questions from journalists on the identities of armed herders attacking farming communities in Nigeria.
Communities in the Plateau and Benue valley have come under a series of attacks by armed herders, who have killed hundreds of farmers and rendered thousands homeless, most of whom are now taking refuge in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps.
READ ALSO: ISWAP Controlling 80 Villages In Borno, Benue, Plateau – CRA
The Defence Headquarters’ position seems to corroborate the recent statement of Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia, who said the attackers are foreign herders taking advantage of ECOWAS protocol on free movement of persons and animals to invade communities.
General Kangye, who was responding to questions on the true identities of the assailants, said some of the arrested assailants spoke a foreign variant of the Hausa language,
“Well, when you hear them talk in some instances, you’ll be able to decipher whether these people are from here or not.
“For example, if I speak Hausa and my brother from the South East speaks Hausa, you’ll know that his Hausa is a borrowed one. Hausa language, like any other language, has different versions and intonations. If somebody from Sokoto, for instance, speaks Hausa and my friend from Katsina speaks Hausa, you’ll notice some differences; just like if somebody from Kano speaks, and somebody from my state does too, you will see a marked difference, for that matter. So the Hausa spoken in Nigeria has differences from the Hausa spoken in Mali, as well as the Hausa spoken in the Central African Republic and the Hausa spoken in Ghana.
“So when we arrest these herders and terrorists, even the way they speak and appear, it is clear to see, and even the hair will tell you that this person is not from Nigeria.
“I think the only community in Nigeria with hair similar to the Shuwa in the Sahel region is probably the Shuwa Arabs in Borno State, but they don’t even have the same hair.
“So one will also admit that many of those terrorising our people are foreigners, even though some of them are also Nigerians,” he said.
He noted that even though some Nigerian herders graze their cattle and encroach on farms, leading to clashes with farmers and farming communities, “but know that most of the violence and incessant killings you are hearing in some parts of this country are perpetrated by those who find their way into the porous borders of our country.”
On the way out, he said, “We must collaborate with other agencies whose responsibility is to ensure those who come into Nigeria are accounted for. There are agencies responsible for that, so we have to collaborate, and that is why we say we work within a joint environment to ensure that we address insecurity.”
Legal experts, however, say the ECOWAS protocol does not permit the indiscriminate movement of cattle across the West African subregion.
Article 5 of the protocol provides the following preconditions for such movement: “All transhumance livestock shall be allowed free passage across points of entry into and departure from each country on the condition that they have the ECOWAS International Transhumance Certificate, a sample of which is annexed to this Regulation.”
The Certificate enable authorities to monitor herds before they leave the country of origin, protect the health of local herds, and inform the host communities of the arrival of transhumance animals.
The Certificate contains details on the composition of the herd, the vaccination given, the herds’ itinerary, the border posts to be crossed, and the final destination. It is issued by the livestock department and initiated by the local administrative authorities in the country of origin.
They want to wipe us out ahead of census – Coalition
A coalition of 22 civil society organisations (CSO) has said the continued attacks and killings in the Middle Belt region by bandits and terrorists are a calculated plan to reduce the population of residents ahead of the census and the 2027 elections.
Addressing a news conference in Kaduna on Thursday, the chief executive officer of the House of Justice and member of the Coalition, Gloria Ballason, called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to end what they called ethnic cleansing.
The coalition noted that the states and communities of the Middle Belt region now suffering a campaign of systematic ethnic cleansing are all landlocked with no direct access to international borders.
Ballason said the coalition demands an urgent meeting of the governors of the states of the Middle Belt region to define and adopt a coordinated, regional security strategy and to ensure all lands forcibly seized and occupied by terrorists and belligerents are returned to the autochthonous communities across Nigeria.
The Coalition further demanded a meeting of the governors of the border states of northern Nigeria to address the root causes of these crises.
“The undersigned organisations register profound concern over the deteriorating security situation in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region, including in Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba, Kaduna, Borno, Gombe and Adamawa states. The persistent violence, characterised by targeted attacks on communities, massacres and mass abductions, has resulted in countless lives lost and many more injured, broken and traumatised. The perpetrators have emptied entire communities and set about replacing them with imported settlers,” the coalition said.
“In recent times there appear to be three main additional triggers for the current upsurge of terrorist violence including first, the impending national census, for which carving a territory for the terrorist bandits will make them owners of the land after the census since the owners of the land will not be available to be counted in their houses; second, an acceleration of the crisis with the impending 2027 elections to potentially disenfranchise the middle belt and third, the institutionalisation of the livestock ministry which appears to be erroneously interpreted as official signal for the takeover of land for settlement of pastoralists.”
‘Return Displaced Communities To Their Lands’
The coalition urged the Presidency to direct the security agencies to return displaced people and communities to their lands and provide the executive and political backing to discharge the responsibility to prevent the sabotage of the government’s directives.
Troops arrest wanted gunrunner, Buhari, kill IPOB leader, Eze
Meanwhile, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has revealed that troops arrested a wanted gunrunner and a kidnap kingpin, Buhari Umar, who was terrorising Gombe, Bauchi, Plateau and Kaduna states.
The director, Defence Media Operations, Major General Markus Kangye, told journalists on Thursday that troops arrested a five-man kidnap syndicate in Lafia LGA of Nasarawa State.
He identified the suspects as Hassan Mohammed, Saleh Sani, Idi Yusuf, Adamu Danmai, and Hassan Bello.
He said troops also eliminated scores of Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) terrorists, including one of their leaders known as Nkwachi Eze, otherwise known as Onowu, who has been on the wanted list of the military.
He said Eze was responsible for coordinating a series of attacks and kidnappings across the South East.
General Kangye further said that troops rescued 173 kidnapped hostages, while over 204 terrorists and members of their families surrendered to their forces.
According to him, troops in April arrested 430 suspected oil thieves and other criminal elements as well as recovered large quantities of various arms, such as automatic weapons, RPG tubes, machine guns, locally fabricated guns, and improvised explosive devices..
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