For Benue indigenes like me, we have justifiable reason to be disturbed by what is happening in our state and to our people. In addition to the killing of our people, you now have a situation where our people are unjustly being detained by the security agencies of the federal government.

Take the case of the Divisional Police Officer of Gboko, Bur Dooior, who was detained on the orders of the police hierarchy on the allegation that he did not prevent the killing of seven Fulani herdsmen in Gboko, Benue State. The police were quick to act on the unproven and spurious allegation, but have never been as quick to take action against the Fulani herdsmen that have been engaged in wanton killing of unarmed men, women and children. They even rip pregnant women open, take out the babies and slit their throats. The situation has reached the point where the murderous Fulani herdsmen have selected Benue State as their headquarters, yet the security agencies have not seen it fit to aggressively move against them to deal with the situation.

Until he was detained, Dooior was the DPO in charge of Gboko Police Station and a native of Tiv. For being a Tiv, he was arrested and accused of failing to prevent the recent killing of seven Fulani herdsmen believed to be terrorists. The police authorities in the quest for a scapegoat arrested the innocent DPO and also humiliated him even when there is no single proof to support the allegation against him.

It is quite puzzling that Fulani herdsmen that have been on rampage across the country, killing, robbing, kidnapping and extorting ransom from victims’ families, raping women are seemingly being protected by the Federal Government, while they are destroying and burning whole villages, turning the people into internal refugees and also taking over their farmlands to graze their herds of cattle. What happens is that these Fulani herdsmen are given the mobile numbers of the heads of the security agencies in such areas, to call for help in the event of the locals challenging them for grazing their cattle on their farms. The police which should ordinarily protect the citizenry often times curiously move away from known stop and search points just before Fulani herdsmen strike on major highways, to abduct people and disappear into the bush.

Incidentally, there are police divisions headed by officers of Fulani extraction, and people have been killed in such police jurisdictions by herdsmen, yet none of the Fulani or Hausa DPOs were ever arrested or even interrogated, but the authorities moved quickly to arrest and detain Bur Dooior, DPO of Gboko.

It is on record that Fulani police officers have at various times headed (and are still heading) the police divisions in Auyi District, Rafin-Kada District and many more in Wukari Local Government Area of Taraba State, where several people have been killed in the past by Fulani herdsmen.

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From every indication, the definition of the type of democracy we have now is government of the Fulani, by the Fulani and for the Fulani. We recall that in his inaugural address on May 29, 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari said that he belongs to nobody but to everybody. We are hard pressed to reconcile this with what we are seeing in reality. It is quite clear that he is only for his brothers, the Fulani. 

I want to join the people who have called for the resignation of the Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris for his handling of the issue of the murderous rampage of Fulani herdsmen, who are allowed to roam free with guns to kill innocent unarmed citizens at will.

Truly, President Buhari has demonstrated that he is more concerned with issues affecting the welfare of cattle. He has equally been lackadaisical on issues concerning the lives of the citizenry. This is disheartening, to say the least.

Awunah Pius Terwase, wrote from Mpape,

Abuja.