Crisis in parts of Plateau no longer farmers-herders clash —Retd AIG Makama

Recently, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN), accused Operation Rainbow personnel of colluding with the natives in Plateau State to attack its members in the troubled Mangu Local Government Area of the state. In this interview with ISAAC SHOBAYO, the coordinator of the security initiative, Assistant Inspector General of Police, Bashir Dabup Makama (retd) speaks on the allegation among other security issues. Excerpts:

 

Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN) recently alleged that Operation Rainbow is a militia arm of the natives in Plateau State. Can you give an insight into the activities of your organisation?

Operation Rainbow is a promulgation of the state House of Assembly; it has a law that created it and it was further approved by the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari, in 2012. It was created to give support to the formal security agencies, to support them in providing information or intelligence gathering at the local government and community levels, and also to ensure that lives are saved and properties are protected. It cannot in any way be equated with a militia group.

 

What is your take on the claim by same MACBAN that Operation Rainbow personnel are colluding with the natives in the alleged attack against the Fulani in Mangu?

You don’t talk anyhow. When you talk, you talk with responsibility. You talk with empirical data. That is what is real. I challenge them to bring up the evidence where they were being killed. They just want to whip up sentiments to justify their atrocities. As a journalist, go to Mangu and conduct your personal investigation instead of listening to them alone. There are families. There are agencies and there are security agencies that you can speak to. So, I don’t know how you want me to answer this question. Operation Rainbow is not out to take sides with anybody. Operation Rainbow involves the police, Civil Defence, NDLEA and other security agencies. Let’s face the issues that are on the ground. We have a very serious issue at hand. Let us face the real issue and stop chasing shadows.

 

Right now, farmers are complaining that they can no longer access their farms for fear of being attacked, while farms are equally being destroyed by bandits. What is the outfit doing in conjunction with other security agencies to address this terrible situation?

That is what should have been the issue instead of saying Operation Rainbow is taking sides to do negative things or other things. Rainbow is supposed to be in the middle to bring peace and eschew bitterness between warring groups. I don’t see it as a herders’ issue; I see it as pure intimidation of people who are unable to have access to their farms. People are driven out of their farms; cattle are set into farms; farms are being cut down by human beings. Is it the person who planted it who will go to his farm and cut it down? Is it somebody who built his house to live with his family that will go and set it ablaze? That cannot happen. But others can come and do it. The others we were talking about are the herdsmen. I insisted that anyone who wanted to say something about Mangu should visit the place and conduct an on-the-spot inquiry so that the fact would be made known to all Nigerians instead of going to one corner of a room and saying whatever they liked. Physical evidence is on the ground. I am a security person, but the issue still remains that you must identify an aggressor. In a crisis situation, there is always an aggressor, whether you are attacking or being attacked. So, in this case, who is attacking who? Farm lands are being destroyed; who is the attacker? Women and children are being killed. Who are the attackers? We have thousands of IDPs, then who are the attackers?

 

Have you been able to identify the aggressors?

If aggressors are identified and the ability to reach out to them becomes impossible, it becomes impossible because they often attack at night. They go to look for soft targets and before security agencies arrive, they run away. So, we also find it difficult to know those that are aggrieved. Whoever is aggrieved should come out and tell the governor so that there will be succor and convergence to ensure it doesn’t happen again. But this is guerrilla attack. They hit and run.

 

Some people are advocating reconciliation between the Fulani and the natives as a way out of this crisis situation. Do you think this approach can address the situation considering that there have been a series of reconciliatory meetings in the past which did not help?

Somebody must be failing; one part must be failing in that reconciliatory move. If you and I have a misunderstanding and we agree to enter into reconciliation and at the end of the day you say that despite the reconciliation I have been attacked. The question is: is the person who is attacking you the same person you entered into an agreement with?

 

From all indications, many farmers are counting their losses as a result of the destruction of their farms by bandits. What are the security agencies doing to provide protection for them?

That is what we are doing: always ensuring that there is peace by being on the ground. We cannot sit down in our offices and fold our arms. We are on the ground and on the field. It is not only Mangu: we are in Riyom, Bokkos, and Barakin-Ladi and most of our local governments are being touched by these herdsmen. We believe there is still room for improvement in talking about peace and living together. Let’s all come out and be sincere. If there is no sincerity, you can’t get it right and if there is no justice, there can be no peace. Let justice be meted out to anyone found to be doing the wrong thing. Operation Rainbow only complements the security architecture. We are not an autonomous body. The police, Civil Defence, and other formal agencies are there. We only give support services to them.

 

The postulation in some quarters is that this unhealthy situation will continue because no one has been properly prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to others. What is your opinion on this?

I will suggest you put this question to the Special Task Force or the police. We don’t prosecute.

 

What is your general assessment of the situation in Mangu currently?

We are on the ground. It is one day off and one day attack. For the past few days, there has been calmness. But we don’t know what will happen tomorrow. There is nothing that is impossible. When you put your cattle on a farm, it is not proper to do so. There are places you can graze unhindered. It is criminal to push cows into people’s farms, but if you see a fallow ground, you can do whatever you like there and nobody will ask you a question. But not on somebody’s farm. What happened in Barakin-Ladi at another time when a man went to his farm and saw cattle therein? What did they do? After questioning them, he was killed on the spot. Is that how it is supposed to be?

 

They also claimed that there were instances where their cattle were being killed or poisoned… (cut-in).

Nobody has a monopoly of power. Nobody has a monopoly of violence and crying out. If anything happens to you, there is always a place you can go for redress. If anyone kills your animals, it is criminal. Cruelty to animals is part of our law and can be handled by approaching relevant authorities. But where you take the law into your own hands, leading to self-help, it is not acceptable by law.

 

Inflammatory statements by groups seem to be fueling the crisis. Don’t you think there is a need for caution and restraint by the stakeholders?

You can do something, because if you don’t blow up this unnecessary allegation, it won’t go anywhere. If allegations are made and somebody sits down in his rosy corner and makes a wild allegation and it is reported without being verified, it will create more tension than solve it.

 

What is the way out of this terrible situation?

I have told you about sincerity of purpose and if there is sincerity of purpose from all sides and everyone comes together at a round table, solutions will come. Laws are meant to be obeyed and anybody who does not obey them should face the wrath of the law. Some of these things will be ameliorated. If ranches can be created to control the movement of animals, it will go a long way towards resolving some of these things. There are many inexhaustible ways of going about identifying solutions to some of these problems.

 

But is it really farmers and herders clashing?

It can no longer be a clash between farmers and herders. If it is a farmers/herders clash, it will always end up on a farm, but where it extends to the loss of lives and property, burning down houses, do you call that a clash? Taking over villages and going into people’s farms, do you call that a clash? You talk about herders and farmers clashing when animals stray onto a farm. But where you want to show power, the man is complaining and why did you allow your animals to enter my farm? The next thing you do is to kill him. Is it herder and farmer clashing? Apart from being criminal, it is also an attempt to annihilate whoever is there to collect whatever he has.

 

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