• Blood, pains, as Fulani herdsmen invade Kuje community
By Romanus Ugwu
It was a moment of tears, pains, sorrow and agonies when the peaceful and serene life at Darka village, a sleepy, small and isolated agrarian community in the Kuje Area Council of FCT, was recently shattered in the early hours of a fateful Sunday by armed men suspected to be Fulani herdsmen who invaded the village.
In a commando fashion, the invaders who did not give the villagers space to defend themselves overran the entire length and breadth of the village, maiming, killing, kidnapping, stealing and inflicting injuries on residents, leaving in its trail endless flow of blood and tears.
When the attackers finally left the theatre of war for the villagers to take stock while recounting their ordeals, they noticed that the blood-tasty gunmen had killed one person and abducted six others, comprising three girls and three young men.
Even one month after, the traumatised villagers were yet to recover from the shock or come to terms with what happened and how they miraculously escaped from attackers to tell their ugly stories.
While many of them still leak their wounds, moping into the air aimlessly with hands on their chins, others watch in bewilderment, wishing it was a wishful thinking that never happened. Many others wished that somebody could wake them up from the nightmare.
Lamentably, the villagers including the village head who is still nursing the deep wound of allegedly losing his son to the rampaging herdsmen confessed that they are perpetually living in fears.
While pleading with the appropriate authority to beef up security around the village to forestall another possible attack, they pointed out that their heartless attackers forcing them to live in fears may be preparing to unleash another attack.
Reason for attack
Blaming the genesis of the crisis on Fulani herdsmen seizing their farmlands for grazing of their cattle, some of the villagers who spoke largely in local dialect and through an interpreter claimed that all efforts to make them realise the fact that their livelihood depends on the farming fell on deaf ears.
The villagers, however, made passionate plea to government and security agencies to rescue those abducted. They warned that they would rather defend themselves with the last drain of their blood instead of being intimidated into releasing their farmlands for grazing:
“Our immediate request is to plead with the relevant government authorities and security agencies to ensure that they deploy enough security personnel to guard the residents of this village because our lives are still in danger. We now live in perpetual fears of another possible attack.
“The genesis of our problem with the Fulani herdsmen is our farmlands. They destroy our farms with their cattle without showing any remorse. The entire villagers depend largely on farming as means of survival but the Fulani herdsmen want us to leave the farmlands to them for grazing.
“The situation has been the source of the constant friction and conflict but we never thought they would one day take up arms against us let alone launching such attack that killed one and abducted six others after swooping on us that early Sunday morning.
“Their attack was very shocking, planned and overwhelming. All we ask is government intervention to save us from more attacks from these blood-tasty herdsmen. Some of those kidnapped are yet to be rescued. They are still in the custody of the abductors many days after the incident.
“Government should not abandon us to our fate because we lack what it takes to defend ourselves. They are blood tasty and armed to the teeth with sophisticated weapons to overrun this village. From the attack, it was obvious that we cannot march them force for force since they are armed with all manners of weapons.”
How they abducted my daughter—Resident
For a young widow identified as Mrs. Odo from Enugu State, that fateful day will ever remain memorable because she still finds it extremely difficult to comprehend the incident of that morning and more essentially how she escaped.
She lamented that the assailants had swooped on her household, bringing down the door with hammer while she watched helplessly with her two children. Her eight-year-old daughter was however not lucky as the attackers abducted her:
“We were surprised to hear the sounds of several repeated gunshots. When I piped through the window and saw several armed persons advancing towards my house, I became so confused.
“It was a shocking experience I wished it was a dream. As I was pondering what to do with my two children, I saw torchlights everywhere but before I could realise myself, I heard a loud bag that sounded like hammer on my door and it was thrown open instantly.
“How I managed to escape leaving my children behind was still a miracle to me. When I returned to my house after the operation, I noticed that they had abducted my daughter, stolen all the money I kept in the house, including goods and other valuables.
“However, the money and other valuables they carted away were not as painful and disturbing as my daughter they abducted. They have shattered my life with the kidnap of my daughter. I don’t know what to do next because as a poor widow I don’t have the power to rescue my daughter.
“I want to appeal to the Federal Government, the Kuje Area Council and all well-meaning Nigerians especially the security agencies to come to my aid in rescuing my daughter. Please, Nigerians I need your help to rescue my daughter.”
Police angle
At the Kuje Police Station, Daily Sun was directed to refer all inquiries to the FCT Police Command: “As you know, we are not in the position to give you information about the incident because the venue is not under our jurisdiction. The best person to give you such information is the FCT Police PRO. However, I can tell you on good authority that the attackers are not members of the Boko Haram Islamic terrorists. They are criminal elements disguising as Fulani herdsmen.”
The FCT Police PRO, ASP Anjuguri Mamza, said on telephone that investigations are still going to unravel the remote and immediate cause of the incident, adding that the FCT Police Command will formally address journalists on the issue once the investigations and operations are completed:
“We don’t want to talk about that issue for now because we are working on it. We will address the media at the appropriate time when we conclude our investigations.”
FCT authority reacts
Disturbed by the incident, the Minister of FCT, Muhammad Bello, called for calm, assuring that security agencies in the territory are on top of the ugly situation. The minister, who gave the assurance after an emergency security meeting with some stakeholders of the affected communities in Kuje Area Council, maintained that it has become necessary because the FCT Administration and the security agencies following the development in these communities have put measures in place to tackle the problem headlong.
While advising the residents not to give any ethnic coloration to the attacks, he contended that the attack, killing and kidnapping of these innocent residents are purely criminal in nature and the culprits would be treated like the criminals they are:
“I want to urge the residents of the FCT to pass any useful information they have to the relevant security agencies nearest to them as well as traditional and community leaders. I want to assure the community not to give any ethnic coloration to the attacks. We have ensured that various security agencies have been drafted to the area to ensure the protection of lives and property and rescue of the abducted villagers.”