Last week’s killing of no fewer than eight persons in renewed attacks on residents of sleepy, agrarian Uwherun kingdom in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State has brought killings by Fulani marauders to at least 80 persons in the last 13 years according to leaders of the kingdom.
Herdsmen of the Fulani stock relish green pastures for their cows and the oil-rich Delta State provides this essential seasonal fodder all-year round due to its geographical, coastal advantage. In herding their cattle southward, by grazing and much more recently by trucks, these herders have mixed in agrarian communities in Delta North, Delta Central and parts of Delta South Senatorial districts over the years amidst destruction of farms, while they allegedly maim, kidnap and rape women.
Before last week’s orgy of killings that lasted for two days amid denials and counter denials at Uwherun kingdom of Urhobo stock, attacks of such kind were much more preponderant in places like Ubulu-Uku, Isele-Uku, Onicha-Olona, Onicha-Ugbo and environs, all agrarian communities in Aniocha and Oshimili local government areas of Delta State, where many indigenes had fallen to the firepower of suspected fulani herdsmen who usually go beyond destroying farmlands to kidnapping, raping women and girls.
Besides, places like Ughelli North, Ethiope East, Ndokwa West and East local government areas of the state have, in recent past, been not exempted, having suffered unwaranted deaths and untold hardship from the suspected rampaging Fulani herdsmen.
There’s a growing tension in Delta State after nine corpses of about 24 persons allegedly killed by the suspected herdsmen in Avwon, Agadama and Ohoror communities of Uwheru kingdom were exhumed from shallow graves where their assailants had hurriedly interred them. The exhumation of the corpses followed denials by the Delta State Police Command that no invasion nor killing took place in the area.
Between Thursday and Saturday of last week, unspecified number of armed herdsmen allegedly in search of grazing paths, invaded the farmlands of communities’ folks, destroying their crops and farm produce in their wake, besides allegedly killing over nine persons suspected to be farmers.
It was learnt that on sighting the herdsmen invading their ancestral lands, youths, who accused the herdsmen of often destroying their crops, polluting their streams and unleashing terror on local farmers, especially women, with impunity swiftly mobilised themselves and redirected the cows off the crops. But this, it was gathered, didn’t go down well with the herders as they regrouped, with their weapons of warfare, went on a revenge mission. The marauders simply went on a killing spree and allegedly buried their victims in shallow graves perhaps to conceal their murderous act.
Angered by the killing of his kinsmen, the Delta State Commissioner for Higher Education, Prof. Patrick Muoboghare, confirmed to journalists that several persons fell to the far superior firepower of the marauders and were interred in shallow graves by their killers.
“Six more shallow graves, where our boys were buried, have been discovered by our gallant boys. We are waiting for the military and police high command to come and evacuate them.
“Yesterday, two corpses were deposited at Ughelli. We are still counting,” Muoboghare said last Tuesday after the recovery of at least nine corpses.
He accused security agencies, especially the army, who were yet to debunk the allegation of not only providing cover for the Fulani assailants but allowing the killers to satisfy their murderous thirst before moving in to effect sanity.
“In the last few years, they have killed not less than 50 people in the community, and the yearly killings were a plot by the Fulani herdsmen to take over our land.
“Before now some Fulani herdsmen were arrested and handed over to the police, but they were promptly freed, because the police national command structure is in the hands of Fulani officers.
“The community, known for its production of sweet potatoes, groundnut, pepper and fish, can longer go to their farms due to the menace of herdsmen,” he lamented.
A former president-general of the Uwheru Community Development Association, Ogarivi Utso, while tracing the trajectory of the assailants, told journalists that the herdsmen always arrived the community during the dry season, especially around November in droves with several cow-carrying trucks and forcefully occupy open lands, ponds and farmlands.
He said the herdsmen usually arrived Uwheru in the dead of the night in a long convoy of trucks, renting the air with their AK-47 gunshots to ward off possible intrusion by locals, adding that the herdsmen usually returned up north when the rainy season commenced to return again in November.
He decried the agony and fear Uwheru people now live in and the total annihilation of their economic mainstay since what he called deliberate onslaught of Fulani herdsmen on their ancestral land since 2004.
While the natives continue to lick their wounds and lose their youths during each onslaught, women and children in their scores, the state government appeared much more responsive and responsible.
The state governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, through his chief press secretary, had condemned the attack on Uwheru communities, describing the killings as barbaric and wicked. In fact, while suing for peace, he accused the military of providing cover for the marauders to commit their evil acts of genocidal magnitude.
Current Pesident General of Uwherun Kingdom, Chief Akpedafe Cassidy Arhemronarhe, who also spoke to journalists during the week, appealed to the Federal Government to urgently come to the aide of the people of Uwherun kingdom.
“And we the people of Uwheru kingdom, especially Agadama community are farmers, and the fear of the herdsmen has made many of them not to go to the farm.
“And the Buhari regime said we should go to farm which is the only source of money for our people because there is no employment in the country, and if our people cannot go to the farm and work for their daily bread, what do you expect them to do?” he queried.
He commended the Governor Okowa, Chairman of Ughelli North Local Government Area, Godwin Adode and the Police Area Commander, Ughelli over their efforts in bringing the situation under control.
Meanwhile, the youth wing of the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) has condemned Fulani herdsmen over the killing of nine farmers in the last one week in Urhobo communities, asking them to vacate or face the wrath of youths from the area.
President of UPU, Youth Wing Worldwide, Comrade Efemena Kelly Umukoro, gave the warning in a statement made available to journalists in Warri.
He decried the incessant killings in Urhobo communities by Fulani herdsmen and condemned the action in its entirety, saying that there was no tribe that had a monopoly of violence in the country.
The Centre for Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Crusade (CHURAC) has called for the establishment of a regional security outfit among states in the South South.
President of CHURAC, Mr Alaowei Cleric, in a statement made available to Saturday Tribune described the incessant killings by suspected Fulani herdsmen in the state as alarming, saying the last week’s killings were one too many.
Cleric, who further joined other notable Nigerians to insist that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has failed in its responsibility of securing lives and property, said the killings by suspected herdsmen justified the calls for the establishment of regional security outfits as means of protecting lives and property on regional basis.
On his part, the Commissioner of Police, Delta State Command, Mr Hafiz Inuwa, who had earlier denied the attack, later claimed that only one person was rescued with bullet wounds by the search team and was receiving medical attention at the Central Hospital, Ughelli. He admitted the recovery of nine corpses by a search team from shallow graves in the forest.
He, however, noted that the corpses were brought to Ughelli Police Station by some persons without the direct supervision of the police, claiming that only an autopsy could ascertain the veracity of what manner of deaths killed the deceased.
“Yes, six bodies that were exhumed by some people were brought to our police station in Ughelli. We were not there when they exhumed the corpses. We are investigating the matter because they alleged that the bodies were those of the people that were killed during the herders/farmers clash at Uwheru communities.
“It is the investigation that will tell us who killed them, who buried them, when they were buried, who exhumed them and what have you,” Inuwa said
and then