How Fulani/Bororo battle marauding herdsmen, kidnappers

The belief among Yoruba communities that have Fulani/Bororo herdsmen as settlers is that indigenes are at risk as they would be the target of diverse criminal acts perpetrated by marauding herdsmen. YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE, after a visit to Osuntedo, a community in Osun State, reports that this is not the case as the Fulani/Bororo settlers are united with their Yoruba hosts in fighting marauding herdsmen.

The terrain was a rugged deep forest that only allowed sunlight to spill through intermittently with a path best suited for the pedestrian wielding a stick or a motorcycle as it could barely accommodate a small car. And except you have a guide that you trust, you will not venture beyond some metres before turning back for fear of your life.

Indeed, there was no sign of life on the two-hour venture into the forest situated on an unmarked turning off the old Ede-Iwo road abandoned by motorists for fear of armed robbery. But after a tensed and fear-filled journey, one suddenly sees some brown colour, peeking out of the green forests before stumbling into a cluster of hamlets standing together on a wide expanse. This is Gaa Ajitena, one of the many Fulani/Bororo settlements scattered within forests far from civilization across Osun State.

Until recently, throughout South-West Nigeria and in other regions in the country, the mention of the words, Fulani herdsmen brings to mind, wanton destruction of lives and property as well as mayhem visited on farmers and communities. But in recent times, kidnap joined the list of criminal acts perpetrated by these set of nomads.

There had been diverse cases of kidnap of high profile people, poor farmers and royal fathers especially within the borders of Ondo State. Herdsmen, as they are popularly called, became the bane of farmers and agriculture across the country while their name became synonymous with death and destruction. Rather than the rod which they use to direct their cattle, they now carry heavy duty arms while moving about without fear of arrest.

Indeed, they have caused friction between many communities in the South-West due to their continuous ravage of farmlands. In Oyo State, many communities in the Oke Ogun region have become a shadow of themselves and indigenes find it difficult to relate with herdsmen that were hitherto their good neighbours, many of whom don’t even know their way home again, having been born in South-West states by fathers who are resident in Yoruba land.

The repeated killings and clashes between herdsmen and farmers knew no borders and spread across the various regions in the nation. In Osun State, in agrarian communities where lush vegetations are spread evenly, herdsmen and farmers have had both good and bad times. The bad times obviously outweigh the good. In places like Osuntedo in Osun State, marauding herdsmen of both Fulani and Bororo extraction have visited untold pain and tragedy to communities whose farmlands provided foliage for their cattle. The herdsmen’ anger was brought to bear upon the people when they met any resistance.

But for those Fulani/Bororo who had settled in their host communities, their fear worsened when they became kidnap victims in the hands of marauding herdsmen. They were not only kidnapped, some of them lost their lives. One of the Bororo men who escaped from the den of his kidnappers, Alhaji Halilu Muhammed, gave a touching story about the death that was visited on his kinsman who was also kidnapped. He stated that the marauding Bororo herdsmen were dangerous and involved in the kidnap and killing of other Fulani/Bororo settlers.

The kidnap

Alhaji Halilu Muhammed and Iliasu Saliu were on Tuesday, October 22, 2017, kidnapped at Osuntedo village in Ejigbo Local Government Area in the forest leading to their settlement, Gaa Ajitena. The duo were coming from a community development meeting with fellow Fulani/Bororo people at Iwo; they were on a motorcycle wading through the path to their settlement around 6.00pm and were mere meters from their home when  Saliu informed Halilu that someone seemed to run into the bush in front, they were still trying to unravel the puzzle when they entered a bend and were attacked by a team of six kidnappers; five Bororo men led by a Fulani man identified as Aliu, who had been responsible for many armed robbery and  cattle rustling within Osun communities.

Aliu, according to the Fulani/Bororo community, was born in one of the Fulani hamlets around the Osun community and was known from childhood to pilfer things. This led him to the remand home but on return, he did not change and he was banished alongside his father. He is now the mastermind of crimes in the area and is known to allegedly live in a community in Oyo state from where he goes to operate in Osun.

Halilu tried to be a man but he was knocked down and his bike thrown into the forest while a gun was put to his head and the duo were tied. Thus began their trek through thick forests from 6.00pm till 3.00am when they were tied and everyone rested. The path the kidnappers took their victims through according to Saheed Muhammed, the commandant of the vigilante who interpreted since Halilu couldn’t speak Yoruba or English was from Osuntedo in Ejigbo through Iwo to the rail track at Olori village, near Ikire in Aiyedire Local Government Area of the state.

He had called to ask for a ransom of eight million naira and allowed his victims to sleep. But the victims being sharp herdsmen were able to loosen their ties and tried an escape but they caught up with Saliu due to fatigue. Halilu’s escape caused trouble in the camp and one of the kidnappers accused of being responsible for the laxity that caused his escape left in anger leaving five men.

So on Wednesday, the vigilante in company of police officers from Ejigbo Police station led by the Divisional Police Officer, started tracking the kidnappers in the forest as Halilu had been found and he had given information about the route, they tracked from 6.00pm till 4.00 am before coming upon the kidnappers who after realizing that Saliu was a vigilante member and may be rescued shot him point blank in the chest and hacked his head with a machete, breaking his skull before engaging the police and vigilante in a duel, after which one of the kidnappers was killed, two were seriously wounded and are still hospitalized and two including Aliu escaped with gunshots and the police are still on his trail as there are indications that he is still hibernating in the state.

Evidently, though they live in peace with their Yoruba neighbours, they are at risk from their own kinsmen. The Fulani/Bororo residents in Osun state are seen by their nomadic brothers as bait and consequently, the nomadic Bororo allegedly attack their settlement, rape their women and cart away their cattle, while they attack any man that is found around.

“When they pass, we just stay alert. They do not relate with us at all and we also keep our distance because they are dangerous. We know they are the ones rustling our cattle and robbing on the expressways, that is why we work with government as a vigilance group to secure this environment. We are part of this community and are also at risk,”Alhaji Suleiman stated.

Luckily members of the Fulani/Bororo settler communities across Osun State partner with the Osun State government in forming a vigilance group.

Fulani Intelligence Squad

The extent of the Fulani/Bororo people’s commitment as residents that want peace in Osun is further reiterated with their activities as part of the state security through a vigilance group known as the Gaa Allah Development Association a.k.a Fulani Intelligence Squad. This group has helped to fight against marauding Bororo herdsmen and had successfully turned them back from operating freely within the borders of Osun State. It is a national body that was established with legal backing of the government in northern states and in any state in which they operate.

How did they get to Osun state? Honourable Mudasiru Toogun, the Commissioner for Special Duties, who also serves as chairman,  Committee for Peaceful Co-existence between Fulani/Bororo and Crop farmers has an answer to this. “What actually happened was there were incessant cattle rustling all over the state and I was afraid that this could lead to crisis as the Fulani may start fighting within the state in retaliation. So I decided to call their heads in Abuja after getting the governor’s approval, I told their headquarters that we wanted such in our state and they complied. That was how they gave us the leadership and things were put in place.

“And actually after this, we have cases of cattle theft and this people have helped times without number to apprehend the perpetrators and had dealt with them in their own way; their system is quite unique. Instead of trying  them here, we tell the police not to bother themselves but hand them over to Seriki and his colleague who take them to their centre in Saki where they have a Quran oath ceremony  after which they confess and name their accomplices.

“This has been effective because when the police were handling them, they tortured them but they never reveal anything but as soon as they swear in Saki, they start revealing so many things, mentioning names of their accomplices. These led to arrests as far as Abeokuta. After this they are forgiven after promising to desist, anyone that goes back to crime after this is arrested and dealt with, that is their system,” Toogun said.

The Gaa Allah operates in collaboration with all security agencies; the police, civil defense and state security service (SSS), following Aregbesola’s open support and assistance. They have identity cards and also a two-man team intelligence outfit in various local governments comprising of one Bororo and one Fulani, who gather information and go after marauding herdsmen.

Their activities is said to have reduced crime across the state as they patrol the borders through the bushes to ward off infiltration.

The Fulani man, according to Nigerian Tribune investigations, learns to live in any community he finds himself, he is malleable, learns the language and way of life and is willing to live by the rules in that community once the people allow him to live his life according to his own belief and do not touch his cattle. They become so integrated that they purchase land and acquire Certificate of Ownership while their children, in addition to growing to being herdsmen, attend nomadic schools.

Though like professional herdsmen, there are always issues of cows destroying farmlands but in their case, this does not lead to crisis. The peaceful coexistence between these two unlikely neighbours is caused by the activity of the committee set up by Mr Rauf Aregbesola, the governor of the state, and headed by Honourable Toogun.

The committee has a dispute resolution mechanism that ensures amicable resolution of dispute in a very short period and without rancour as it mediates in a way that ensures payment for damages by herdsmen to farmers and have through this means settled over 5,000 cases.

“We do not fight ourselves, once anybody’s cattle enter a farmland, I will be informed by the herdsman involved and we will approach the farmer after telling the chairman of the committee, to apologise and discuss cost of damages and the erring herdsman will pay voluntarily. If the farmer gets the information first, the process is the same. He will call the committee chairman who will call to find who went that route and a meeting is set up to resolve the issue. We do not fight or go to court, we live together as one,’ Alhaji Oluwatoyin Suleiman, the chairman of Fulani Settlers Community and an executive of the committee popularly called the Seriki Fulani, told Nigerian Tribune.

Confirming this, Toogun told Nigerian Tribune that it is because of the friendly relationship between the Fulani/Bororo, the government and people of Osun State that had stopped unrest based on series of cattle rustling, adding that the Fulani/Bororo in the state trust their neighbours and are aware that they won’t steal their things. “They know their cattle are being stolen by their migrating kinsmen not our people based on our cordial relationship and efforts to integrate them into the community,” Toogun said.

To further reduce infiltration of marauding herdsmen into the state, Nigerian Tribune gathered that Osun State is about to start a data base for cattle through enumeration and tagging of the estimated three million cattle in the state. This, as gathered, would make it possible to guarantee the safety of lives and property of both indigenes and herdsmen.

When contacted on the issue, the Osun Police PPRO, Folashade Odoro, told Nigerian Tribune that she is not aware of the incident.

Roaming Bororo herdsmen are evil —Seriki Fulani

Speaking on the issue, the Seriki Fulani, Alhaji Oluwatoyin Suleiman told Nigerian Tribune that “The Bororos have been coming to steal our cow and harm cattle rearers.

These people are not part of the association because the evil ones will not like a good association. Only God can help us because you can never be wiser than the person monitoring you.

The only thing responsible for this is that there is no fear of God. Now that we have stopped them from stealing our cattle through members of the vigilance group, they want to start kidnapping cow owners.

We are pained by the death of one of us in the hands of the kidnappers. We want the government to help us more in fighting these evil people.”

We need government’s support to fight these marauders —Saheed Muhammed

The commander of the vigilance group, Saheed Muhammed, said that “If these people had successfully continued

with this act and they were not caught, when they are done with us, they would move to the Yoruba people in town and when people see that they are Fulanis and Bororos, they would think we were responsible.

So I pray we capture others involved in this act.

“We, therefore, plead with the government to help us so that when they are caught they won’t come out of it.

That is why we want the government to come to our aid and provide us with tools to work with and increase our membership as most vigilantes rear cattle and when they are in the bush, there’s no security at home to protect our wives and children.”

We have to thank the police —Umar Sumaila

The deputy commandant of the vigilance group attributed the success of the operation to the synergy between the police and the vigilance group.

“The police tried so much, we cannot thank the DPO at Ejigbo enough; he did not relent and was with us in the bush for hours.

The cooperation was very effective, we could track the forest path and they had ammunition and expertise. We need each other.

“We know we have to be vigilant because someone close is giving them information, which is why we have the vigilance group, anyone suspected will be arrested.

As members of the vigilance group, the job has been easy with the support of the government and the help of the police; we can go to any extent to get the evil doers.”

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