The Tiv Area Traditional Council has given herders occupying ancestral Lands and farmers’ homes in the Tiv Kingdom in Benue State ten days to vacate before the end of May 2025. This will allow farmers to return and cultivate their farms to avoid the looming hunger in Nigeria.
The Council, which gave the directives during its emergency meeting in the palace of the Tor Tiv in Gboko, lamented a disturbing situation where farming activities in the kingdom have ceased due to the occupation of farmlands by herders in nine out of the 14 local government areas of the Tiv-speaking community.
According to the council, the sustained attacks and killings have led to the fleeing of many farmers leaving their farm lands and crops at the mercy of the herders who are occupying their homes and as well using their crops to feed cattle, a development they said will result in acute hunger in State Kingdom and Nigeria as a whole.
They also requested that the Governor Hyacinth Alia-led administration create an enabling environment for herders’ peaceful exit from farmlands in Tiv Kingdom and facilitate the resumption of farming activities.
The Council, chaired by the paramount ruler of the Tiv nation, Ochivirigh Prof. James Ayatse, equally appealed to all herders to vacate all Tiv lands before the end of May 2025 to allow farmers to return and cultivate their farms to avoid the looming hunger in Nigeria.
In a communique signed by the council’s Secretary, Shinyi Tyozua, all political and traditional rulers in each local government area of the Tiv Kingdom were directed to peacefully engage the herders to ensure their exit from the affected communities.
According to the Communique, Nine out of the 14 LGS in the Tiv-speaking areas are the worst affected, including Kwande, Katsina-Ala, Logo, Ukum, Guma, Makurdi, Gwer West, Gwer East, and Buruku local governments.
The Council lamented, ‘farming activities in the kingdom have ceased due to the occupation of farmlands by herders whose sustained attacks and killings have made farmers to flee their ancestral home whom the herders are currently occupying and if the situation continues like this, without any drastic action, more people will be impoverish, there will be hunger with high increase in criminal activities”
