Adamawa: We feel like second-class citizens in Nigeria - Herdsmen victims

- Recent attacks by suspected herdsmen on Numan local government area in Adamawa state have led to deaths and displacement of residents

- Stories from the state lately have been about grief and sorrow

- Victims of the crisis said they have been made to feel like second-class citizens in their own country as no one had come to their aid

A report by The Punch suggests that government agencies have abandoned residents of Numan local government area in Adamawa state, who are victims of herdsmen attacks.

According to the report, victims of the crisis said they have been made to feel like second-class citizens in their own country as no one had come to their aid.

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Narrating his experience, Jonathan Agabus of Kikang community in Numan said: “The attackers invaded the community around 1am on a Sunday. When I spotted them, I raised the alarm, shouting ‘thief’, ‘thief’. Immediately, the attackers opened fire.

“They continued shooting for over one hour, shooting at everything in their sight and setting houses on fire. By this time, my family and I had fled into the bush. When the soldiers arrived an hour later, they fired warning shots into the air, to indicate their arrival, but that was all they did. They never advanced from their position, which was like one kilometre away from Kikang.

“It was after they fired a second shot that we saw the assailants retreating. The suspected Fulani herdsmen fled into the bush. At this point, we could see the beam of a powerful torch. The beam was like the one used by the military, who also shone their torches, swirling them round in the air as if to signal to our attackers to retreat. This is what I saw with my own eyes; it is not that anybody told me. This is our home and we feel like foreigners there because of Fulani herdsmen.

“The attackers laid siege to the area till 4am from 1am when they first opened fire. The government has allowed the attacks to go on as if there’s a plot to exterminate us.”

Agabus said the attackers arrived in the community in two vans wearing, black clothes. “They killed three persons in the village – two men and a woman,” he added.

David Doctor, 56, lost his immediate younger sister, Jummai Michael, and was left to care for his nephew; two-year-old Pwaneke Michael.

His words: “We were awakened by the sound of gunshots all around us; I trembled at the sound. It was really frightening; I had not experienced anything like it before. Everyone was fleeing in all directions because the sound of the gunshots was scary.

“My deceased sister was also awakened by the sound of gunshots. She was trying to flee with her baby when the gunmen caught her right in front of her hut and killed her with machetes. Her two-year-old baby also suffered minor burns and had machete cut. She died instantly, but her son survived. The assailants were no doubt Fulani men and they were shouting Allahu Akbar.

“Those of us who escaped into the bushes around put a distress call to the military for help. When they arrived, they did not attack the gunmen, they only put on their torches.

“They took one of the boys in the village to lead them as they chased the gunmen, but the boy said he was not satisfied with the speed of the soldiers as they gave chase. He said he asked the soldiers to speed up as he was worried that the attackers would escape because of their lack of urgency. He said the soldiers instead chastised him and told him not to teach them their work.

“Eventually, the boy said they left him in the bush for questioning them. By the time we returned to the village, I met my sister’s corpse; she was lying in a pool of blood and her dying boy was beside her. The boy had suffered minor burns on some parts of his body.”

Doctor said the assailants that attacked Kikang were well over 60 in number.

His words: “They were armed with sophisticated arms and the sound their guns made shook the ground around us. They were also chanting war songs in Fulbe (Fulani language).

“They were saying, ‘Gare wada ette gare wada ette tineh dougei’. This means ‘come quickly, set fire and leave’. In Kikang, we never had any disagreement that resulted in a fight with Fulani people, so we were surprised by the attacks on our community.

“We are aware of what happened recently in Shaforon, a neighbouring village, which pitted the community against the Fulani. There are Fulani in our community, but nothing happened to them.

“So we were surprised by the attacks. The greatest victims of the attacks are our children; many of them were burnt by fire since the whole community was set ablaze. Many of them sustained machete injuries while fleeing for their lives.

“The way the attacks occurred is making us to suspect that the government has a hand in it. This is because there’s a military deployment not far from here, but there was no attempt on their part to apprehend the attackers. We are surprised that the attackers got away and that the soldiers could not apprehend any of them, not even one of them.

“We are Nigerians and we expect the government to give us protection, but with this experience, we feel like second-class citizens. When there’s an attack and security operatives arrive at the scene, you expect them to, at least, defend you by going after the attackers. Instead, you see soldiers signaling to the attackers with their torchlight.

“One of the soldiers even told us that the reason why they did not respond on time was because they didn’t have fuel in the vehicles and that the commander, that was supposed to give them the permission to respond, was not around.

“With this kind of tales, one is only left to come to the conclusion that we are being neglected by the government or that the government sees us as second-class citizens. If we are important the government would be there to protect us but this it has failed to do.”

Also, 80-year-old Eli Nzohmon sustained three gunshot wounds and was lucky to have survived the attack.

He alleged that the crisis was borne out of a sinister plan by the Federal Government to give part of their land to Fulani people.

“So it is a fight over our farmlands. If the Fulani people and their cattle encroach on our farmlands and eat our crops, we dare not approach the ‘Jauro’ (village head), they (Fulani herdsmen) will tell us they will not compensate us. In some cases, they will even take the matter to court and the case will drag on. So it is about land, they want to chase us out of our land,” he said.

However, the leader of the Hausa-Fulani community in Luru, who described himself as a victim of a reprisal carried out by Bachama youths allegedly from Opallo, Zayyanu Abdulrahman, said the rampaging youths threatened to kill all his people if they did not leave their land.

He alleged that the attack by the aggrieved youths on Luru resulted in the death of one Alhassan Yusufu and the razing of four houses belonging to him and two other settlers in the community.

He called on the government to intervene, lamenting the delay in response of the security agencies.

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Meanwhile, several people are feared dead in a communal clash in Libbo ward of Shellenge local government area of Adamawa state.

The incident was confirmed to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday, February 9, by the councillor representing the ward, Shuaibu Waleed.

According to him, the clash was said to have started when a body of a man from Gomba community of neigbouring Demsa local government area was allegedly sighted and the people of Gomba claimed that the deceased was killed by a Fulani.

“The bodies of two Fulani were later seen in what looked like a reprisal leading to further attacks. I can’t actually say the number of people killed but I knew that we buried five dead bodies and I saw one other dead body burnt beyond recognition inside a mosque while about 200 houses were burnt,” Waheed said.

Victims of herdsmen killing buried in Benue state - on NAIJ.com TV

Source: Naija.ng