Introduction
In accordance with Ortom, roughly 15 herders that have been dressed in black outfits ambushed him and his safety personnel. I moved to my farm across Gboko street. And, on our way back we began hearing some gunshots and we found those who had been dressed in dark, and out of the experience, we finally discovered that all these really are Fulani militias and I didn’t wish to take things for granted since, a couple of days before, the media were teeming with statements from MACBAN who fulfilled Yola, the exact same place they fulfilled 2016 where they determined they will take Nigeria, also that each other man is a servant; that was if they began infiltrating the whole nation”.
According to the Governor, “I love the safety guys attached to me. They could repel them and the gunmen couldn’t have access to me personally. And I thank God for my fitness centre, to get run for over a half kilometres without quitting. This means that God has given me power, and I am thankful to God.” Ortom, that has been a vocal critic of available grazing of cows, allegedly impounded over 200 cows for breaking up the anti-grazing legislation that the State passed in 2018.
On March 20, 2021, at a media statement signed by Umar Amir Shehu, a team called The Fulani Nationality Movement claimed responsibility for the assault. The team said it had real motives because it happened on behalf of countless Fulani people in 15 nations. said it’s true of vengeance from an infidel, who has employed his time and money from ruining the Fulani inheritance and values. According to the group, “Our brave fighters completed this historical attack to deliver a fantastic message to Ortom along with his collaborators: Wherever you are when you’re against Fulani long term attention, we will get you down. This is a very clear warning. We expect those who take for granted, will find the incontrovertible message”.
news maintained 11 of its operatives were involved with the assault’ and the intruder had been able to escape due to a little technical communication mistake. It claimed Ortom was leading the effort against Fulani interests, at the North. The team said it’s operatives in most Southern States. It said clearly that any Condition or person who opposes RUGA or ranching will probably be faced. It stated It will execute strikes on strategic human and material assets of States and non-State classes or people, famous for their anti-Fulani campaigns.
The Newspaper on March 21, 2021, first printed the announcement. The paper reported that in 2018, the team had triggered a few furores in Nigeria as it promised that the Fulani are the proprietors of their Nigerian land, from Sokoto into the Atlantic. The Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, the religious mind of the Fulani, allegedly contested the authenticity of the team and disowned its announcement as reckless. The team supposedly has made many incendiary statements afterwards, with no consequence. It’s estimated that the simple fact that a team has owned up to have dedicated the assassination attempt on Ortom if put paid to speculation that the Governor orchestrated or point managed the assault on himself, so as to draw sympathy.
The current attempt on the life span of Governor Samuel Ortom wasn’t the first to make him cover allegedly opposing Fulani interest. The rice farm, situated in Gbajimba at the Guma Local Government Area of the State, was stated to have been razed down by the supposed herdsmen. The rice farm, according to the Farm Supervisor, Kena Iordzua, covered about 250 hectares of land, together with the burnt rice anticipated over N100 million. The plantation Supervisor advised The correspondent the herders came into the farm with a high number of cows through the afternoon, and place it on fire in three distinct points. Iordzua stated the inferno couldn’t be put out as a result of the wild temperament of the flame, as a consequence of the harmattan. The farm Supervisor added that security agents were mobilised to proceed after the herdsmen, who took sporadically in the atmosphere as they retreated towards the Nasarawa State border.
Was Ortom the only real man to be assaulted in Nigeria?
According to local reports, the members of this terrorist group attacked the convoy of Gov. Babagana Zulum about the Gajiram-Monguno street, killing seven soldiers and 2 civilians. Zulum escaped uninjured, however, it had been the next time he was assaulted by Boko Haram terrorists, a report by Anadolu Agency (AA) said. Zulum’s convoy was allegedly attacked twice across the Baga Highway in September 2020.
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This is the general condition of insecurity in Nigeria, which traditional rulers, political office holders and individuals believed as extremely important Personalities are targeted for attacks by unidentified armed groups. Back in November 2020, bandits took a notable First Class conventional ruler in Ondo State, Oba Israel Adeusi who had been the Olufon of Ifon. Oba Adeusi was stated to be returning to his city from Akure, the Ondo State capital, in which he travelled to get a meeting together with other frontline traditional rulers in the State.
In February 2021, Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State participated in a sentence of words together with his Benue State counterpart on his handling of this herders/farmers conflict. Mohammed blamed Ortom because of his lack of foresight, because of his negative understanding of Fulani herders from the nation. The Governor further speculates that pastoralists from the nation, especially Fulanis, are being maligned although nearly all of them have become victims of cattle rustlers who have dispossessed them of the commonwealth, and they have no choice but to take AK47 since the society and the Government aren’t shielding them’.
He said inter alia that”the strangest part of Governor Bala Mohammed’s announcement was defended herdsmen for bearing arms. “I wonder which part of this legislation that the Bauchi State Governor mentioned encouraging herdsmen’s free motion around the nation with sophisticated firearms. I remember it had been the exact same Governor Mohammed who said on national tv, a Fulani man is an international citizen, and so, doesn’t require a visa to visit Nigeria, which the woods belong to herdsmen. I wonder if my friend and colleague at Bauchi State understand a thing or 2 regarding the dreadful actions of herders in areas of the nation, to justify the psychological defence and rationale he has put forward in their favour”. Following the brickbat, the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike along with his Adamawa State counterpart, Ahmadu Fintiri, encouraged both feuding Governors to Port Harcourt and settled that the rift.
Resolving that the Herders/Farmers Crisis in Nigeria
From all indications, it is going to appear the genesis of this crisis where the lifetime of this Benue Governor has been hunted, is within the 2018 anti-open grazing law at the State. It needs to be remembered that this legislation was a kind of requirement’ and a final resort, following years of assault by supposed herders about the farmlands of Benue indigenes, notably at Agatu and Guma Local Government Areas. The 2 LGAs were the epicentre of this 2018 New Year’s Day massacre, that abandoned near 80 men dead.
Governor Samuel Ortom has vowed to not repeal this anti-open grazing law. The other states like Ekiti, Ondo, Oyo also have passed similar legislation. In reality, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State on January 18, 2021, incurred the anger of several Northern teams, when he gave a stop notice to most herders that are illegally inhabiting their cows within the Ondo forest reserves.
The Governor issued a statement that read: “Now we’ve taken important steps at fixing the origin of kidnapping, particularly, and other nefarious actions detailed and recorded in safety reports, the media and debriefings from sufferers of kidnap cases in Ondo State. These unfortunate events are traceable to the actions of several terrible elements called herdsmen. All these felons have turned into our forest reservations into hideouts for maintaining victims of kidnapping, negotiating for ransom and carrying out other criminal pursuits. Since the Chief Law and Security Officer of the State, it’s my constitutional responsibility, to perform everything legal to safeguard the property and lives of residents of this State.
1. All Forest Reserves from the State should be vacated by herdsmen over another seven days with effect from today, Monday 18th January 2021.
2. Night-grazing is prohibited with immediate impact since most insect devastation occurs at night.
3. Movement of cattle in towns and highways is illegal.
4. Under-aged grazing of cows is outlawed.
“Our settlement to ensure the security of lives and property within the State will stay extreme, as safety agencies are directed to apply the ban. In its typical magnanimity, our government provides a grace period of seven days for people who want to continue with their cattle-rearing company, to enrol with the proper government”.
It’s the herders/farmers clashes which have also caused a non-State celebrity, Sunday Adeyemo popularly called Sunday Igboho, to likewise offer a stop notice to Fulani’s at Igangan at Ibarapa region of Oyo State, along with the forceful ejection of Seriki Fulani of town, Abdulkadir Saliu. Likewise, members of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) lately seized and handed over to the Police, Isikilu Wakili, a dominant Fulani herder at the Ayete region of Ibarapa, that had been fingered in several kidnapping and rape cases in town.
The Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, and really, the Northern Governors Forum have come out to say open grazing is no more sustainable and fashionable in Nigeria, which the best thing to do is ranching. Some time past, as printed in Business Day of Saturday, March 27, 2021, while fielding questions from journalists at Katsina, the Kano State Governor revealed that his government has managed to stem the wave of banditry, by demonstrating a ranching culture in the State. He stated, “We’re constructing a RUGA payoff in Sambisa woods, our boundary using Katsina, and we’ve succeeded in curtailing the impact of banditry in that region. Thus, we’re building many homes, building a dam, and setting cattle artificial insemination centre. We’re launching a veterinary clinic and we have started building homes for herdsmen.” Ganduje advocated for its proscription of nomadic herding which comprises the transport or trekking of herdsmen, from the North to the centre buckle and Southern region of Nigeria. “There ought to be a law which will ban that, otherwise, we can’t restrain the conflicts between herdsmen and farmers and can’t restrain the cattle rustling that is impacting us considerably”, he explained.
The Northern Governors Forum led by Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, also fulfilled about the herders/farmers clashes. In a communiqué issued on Tuesday, February 9, 2021, later their digital meeting the preceding day, the discussion mentioned as follows: “The present system of herding mostly through open grazing, is no more renewable, in view of growing urbanisation and population of the nation. Consequently, it solved to sensitise herders on the necessity to embrace new procedures of herding, either by ranching or alternative acceptable contemporary procedures. It appealed to the Federal Government to encourage States with licenses, to directly tackle pilot projects of contemporary livestock production that could function as a springboard for the complete implementation of new procedures of livestock production. The Governors called on political leaders to isolate criminality and social circles in their domain names, with a view to handling criminals like criminals”.
In an announcement by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and Job to Agricultural Coordination and Planning, PACE, President Muhammadu Buhari, procured the grant in the Dutch Investment Agency, RVO, following approval of this ban, that Buhari signed a Memorandum of Understanding, during his visit to the Netherlands. The States for its NLTP comprise Nasarawa, Adamawa, Plateau and Gombe. The announcement by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Agriculture, Dr Andrew Kwasari, that had been followed closely by members of this FMARD-PACE Team to a two-day trip into the Nasarawa State Livestock Transformation Office to make sure the State Livestock Transformation team was completely aware of the prerequisites for effective execution of this pilot, stated the $400,000 covered 50 per cent of the expense of the pilot startup of NLTP version in Nasarawa State for 30 pastoralist families, using a launch date of March 2021.
The Federal Government is right on track with kick-start the National Livestock Transformation program, below which it planned to launch ranching. But, it must also host an executive order to prohibit open grazing nationally. Regardless of the supposed ban of available grazing from the Federal Capital Territory Administration, herders are still going about their business without any let or hindrance. All forest reservations in Nigeria also must get wired using Closed Circuit Television cameras, drones and satellite surveillance, to be able to expose criminal herders employing the woods as a hideout for attempted victims. All apprehended criminal components ought to be prosecuted and forced to serve their own punishments, instead of supplying them with a nebulous amnesty that has up to now proved counterproductive. Last, the attackers of Samuel Ortom has to be fished out and defeated, in the court of law.
