By; TINA PHINEAS, Yola.
The Fulani in Nigeria has been accused of calculated and orchestrated plans to destroy other ethnics nationalities in the country.
Mr Hezron Fada, the national chairman of Pene Da Bwatiye Association international who made the accusation during a press conference in Yola, said that the activities of the Fulani herdsmen have become a nationwide phenomen.
According to him the Bwatiye people believe that all attacks on their people and land is not a coincidence as the impact of these murderous attacks have been directed mainly at the ethnic nationalities and other well meaning citizens who are opposed to this diabolic agenda.
“The activities of these evil men are not limited to the Bwatiye alone, it is rather a carefully calculated and orchestrated agenda by these dangerous external Fulani Marauders in collaboration with their local herdsmen and sponsors to lay state, sack and take over the fertile agricultural lands of the indigenous groups.” He said.
He revealed that the Fulani attacks started in Dumne and massacred several Yungur people. In 2012, they invaded Lamurde LGA and touched several of the Sobo settlements through a highly sophisticated mercenary force whose advance was only checked through the late intervention of a combined team of police and military troops.
“Between 2010- 2014, through the diabolic Boko Haram sect, these blood thirsty organizations laid waste the largest concentration of ethnic nationalities in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa States destabilizing in the process the Marghi, Higgi, Fali, Gude, Janyi, Kilba, Hona, Lala, Bura, Ga’anda, Mboi, to name but a few.
“The strategy they employed is a simple one; isolate the different ethnic nationalities and strike them. They started this in Plateau State, then moved to Nasarawa and Benue States.They have laid siege to Kogi, Ekiti, Ondo, Enugu, Delta, Taraba, Kaduna, Zamfara, Nasarawa States etc. This is therefore, a wake-up call on all and sundry to stand up and fight this common evil by all well meaning and peace loving Nigerians”. He added
The group demanded that, as a matter of priority and urgency, government should immediately come to the aid of the victims of the Kodomun massacre through the provision of relief materials. Government should also rehabilitate and settle the affected community as houses and property has been destroyed and they could hardly afford to provide shelter for themselves.
They vowed to support the government through the constitution of a high powered judicial panel of inquiry with the task to ascertain the true position of the immediate and remote causes of all the deadly attacks on innocent and defenseless people.
“We call on the government of Adamawa State, His Excellency Mohammed Umaru Jibrilla to take this important step to provide a permanent settlement to the raids and feuds in the interest of peace in the state.
We assume government is aware that unless culprits are brought to book, we run the danger of communities resorting to the dreadful steps of securing justice against the tenets of civilized society. The danger is that as no section of the citizenry or ethnic group has a monopoly on violence, other groups will take measures to protect themselves and their property. The result is going to be chaos and disorder in the country beyond the scope of government to control, should it desire to do so at this stage, we call on the government to check this dangerous drift to anarchy.
“Consequently and more importantly, we demand the immediate disarming of Fulani Herdsmen and immediate proactive steps towards restoring amicable farmers/grazers relationship for the benefit of peace and harmony in Adamawa State.
“We are calling on all the Pane Da Bwatiye sons and daughters and other ethnics nationalities to keep faith with the present government to bring lasting peace in our communities as we are known to be law abiding”.
