Notable Nigerians have waded into a recent 'death-sentence' of five men, by a Yola Court, north-east Nigeria, presided over by Justice Abdul-Azeez Waziri, over an alleged killing of a herdsman.
According to report, the men identified as: Alex Amos, Alheri Phanuel, Holy Boniface, Jerry Gideon and Jari Sabagi, from Demsa Local Government Area of Adamawa State, on June 1, 2017, allegedly conspired and attacked three herdsmen, at Kadamun village in Demsa local government area, in the process, one of the herdsmen, identified as Adamu Buba, was killed. It was gathered that the convicts, after killing Buba, threw his body into a river and injured several cattle.
Justice Waziri maintained that the case against the accused persons, had been proved beyond reasonable doubt by the counsel to the state, Mr. Salihu Mohammed. He ruled: “I hereby sentence the accused persons on counts one and two to death by hanging, while on counts four and five, I sentence the accused to three years in prison to run concurrently....Any aggrieved party is at liberty to file an appeal to the Court of Appeal, Yola Judicial Division within 90 days from today.”
Following the verdict, stakeholders across Nigeria's religious organisations have reacted: The Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN) pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari, to intervene in the death-sentence on the five convicts.
The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, (PFN) an arm of the Christian Association of Nigeria, faulted the death-sentence, saying the "government should rather find a way to stop activities of the headsmen, and provide adequate security to all Nigerians".
”it looks as if it is vengeance for a Yola court to condemn five Christians to death for allegedly killing herdsman when herdsmen are rampaging everywhere killing and maiming innocent Christians and going free.
“Though we are not backing anybody to commit crime, we rather feel that justice must seem to have been done in the case of the five Yola people. Then entire leadership of PFN protests totally against the judgment and calls for appeal to squash it.
“It is high time the Federal Government intervened and ensure that those Christians are not killed to forestall further religious conflict within that axis.
“Instead of killing people for herdsmen, Federal Government should rather find a way to curtail their activities and provide adequate security to all Nigerians, which the present administration promised on ascension to power in 2015.”- PFN.
Retrospectively, in July, 2016, a mother of seven, Eunice Elisha, was killed while she was preaching in the early hours of the day, around Pipeline, Kubwa area of Abuja, Nigeria's capital territory.
Before the killing of Eunice Elisha, Reverend Zakariya, a member of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), was reportedly killed by people suspected to be herdsmen in Obi Local government area, Nasarawa state, north-central Nigeria. According to reports, Reverend Zakariya, was attacked on his farm. The killers chopped off his head, arms and legs with a machete.
On March 5th, 2018, 26 persons were reportedly killed by suspected herdsmen, at Omusu community, Ojigo, Benue state, middle belt, Nigeria. A day after slain Omusu indigents were laid to rest, in a mass burial, attended by the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, the Nigerian Army confirmed the killing of 25 persons in an attack, this time in Rafiki and Dong communities, Plateau State, Jos-North local government, central- Nigeria. The fully armed attackers were suspected to be headsmen.
There are reports of numerous spontaneous attacks, and killings of vulnerable men, women, children, young and old, in communities across north and central Nigeria, by suspected herdsmen. Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes and all they ever laboured for, to become refugees in other communities. Regrettably, able bodied individuals, have been maimed for life and forced to depend on others for survival.
Agriculture/food production, which is responsible for over 90% of the Nigeria's wealth, before Oil Boom, have been destroyed by suspected "herdsmen". Some of these killing were reported to be Politically induced.
Governor Samuel Ortom, while condoling victims of Omusu-clash, at the mass-burial of the reported 26 casualties, made a repeat-call for the arrest of a group of Fulani cattle breeders in Nigeria, whose reported utterances, betrayed as being the sponsors of killings in the state.
Ortom added that the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches establishment Law of Benue State, believed to be the roots of farmers/headsmen clashes across the country has come to stay.
On their part, the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, through its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Yisuf Ardo, in a January 6, 2018 publication in the Dailies, denied the "sponsor-claim". The group condemned and distanced itself from herdsmen-killings.
According to a Nigerian Daily, the Nations Newspaper, January 6th, 2018 publication, Alhaji Yisuf Ardo said. "We are peace loving people, we believe in love for one another. Any Fulani Pastoralist that doesn't believe in peace is not part of us".
Ahead of the Common Wealth Heads of Government meeting in April 2018, during an interaction with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, in London, Nigeria's President, Muhammadu Buhari, while responding to a comment on the farmers/herders clashes in different parts of Nigeria, said: “The problem is even older than us. It has always been there, but now made worse by the influx of armed gunmen from the Sahel region into different parts of the West African sub-region. “These gunmen were trained and armed by Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. When he was killed, the gunmen escaped with their arms. We encountered some of them fighting with Boko Haram. “Herdsmen that we used to know carried only sticks and maybe a cutlass to clear the way, but these ones now carry sophisticated weapons. The problem is not religious, but sociological and economic. But we are working on solutions". Buhari said.
Following this development, key questions on Herdsmen attack remain:
- Who are these 'armed-to-the-teeth' herdsmen?
- Where do they really come from?
- Who is/are their sponsors?
- Why have they eluded apprehension and apprehension and Justice thus far?
- If they are from Libya, or neighbouring Senegal and The Gambia, is the Libyan, Senegal and The Gambia Governments aware of this development?
- What concrete measures are the Nigerian, Libyan, Senegalese and The Gambian governments putting in place to end this menace?
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