PAUL ORUDE, BAUCHI
A misunderstanding between Fulani herdsmen and farmers in Shimba Village in Song Local Government Area of Adamawa State on Thursday night has left two people dead and several others injured.
This was disclosed yesterday, in Bauchi, by the Dean of the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria (LCNN), Myawege Division, Reverend Samuel Goro, at the Annual Myawege Divisional Conference 2018, held at LCCN, Bauchi.
Maigoro, who addressed newsmen, said that the entire Shimba village was razed during the attack, rendering hundreds of villagers’ homeless.
Hundreds of farmers have been killed in renewed and coordinated attacks by Fulani herdsmen in Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba and Adamawa states, even as Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association has also decried killings of their members and theft of their cattle in several communities in Nigeria.
The enactment of the Anti-Open grazing Laws in Benue and Taraba states is reported to have ignited fresh clashes between Fulani herdsmen and farmers across some states in northern Nigeria.
Goro decried the shedding of blood of innocent people, saying: “we cannot continue like this, we can’t continue to be slaves in our fatherland, where people now take laws into their hands. There is so much lawlessness and killings going on in the land.”
The cleric, who declared open the three-day conference with the theme: “In a time like this,” called on President Muhammadu Buhari to take immediate and decisive steps to end the killings, and bring the perpetrators to book.
“President Buhari must wake up and direct the security authorities to take adequate action to ensure that this crisis is brought to an immediate end,” he said.
Reverend Goro, who is also the Executive Director of Centre for Peace and Advancement in Nigeria (CEPAN), warned that if handled with kids glove, the current Fulani herdsmen/farmers clashes were capable of igniting ethno-religious conflict that could engulf the entire country.
In his admonition, the District Pastor, LCCN, Bauchi, Reverend Evans Leviticus Bigila, while speaking on the topic, “Watch and Pray in a Time like this”, said the Bible had predicted that perilous times would come.
Bigila, who read a Bible passage from Luke 21:17-16, stated, that Nigerians were indeed living in insecure and worst times in the history of the country, characterised by kidnapping, terrorism, Fulani herdsmen killings, corruption among other vices.