Linus Oota, Lafia
After a few weeks of lull, the herdsmen horror resumed on Friday, February 8, with the grisly murder and disembowelling of a seven-month pregnant woman. The victim, Mbaaneve Dyer, 27, and her husband, Stephen Dyer, 47, were ambushed in their farm by a group of killer herdsmen. The attack in Kuduku village, a Tiv community in Keana Local Government area, Nasarawa State, sent shockwaves of fear across the state as communities regard the killing as a harbinger of bloodbath and the return of the herders-farmers upheaval that has rocked the region in the last one year.
The couple, Stephen and Mbaaneve Dyer, had earlier escaped death by the whiskers last year when their village was overrun by rampaging killer herdsmen. They were among lucky survivors who escaped the massacre and the sacking of their village by the marauders, who totally razed the community. They subsequently spent almost a year living in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp.
A semblance of calm that prevailed over the last couple of months had deceived the couple to return to their community to start life afresh. Unknown to them, they had on their own volition walked back into a deathtrap.
That fateful day, husband and wife had gone to check their nearby charcoal farm. Since losing their farms in the wake of the incessant attacks of 2018, they had resorted to making charcoal to survive in the short run. At the farm, they ran into a group of herdsmen allegedly armed with machetes and AK47.
The gory details by Dyer
“We were in the farm when we saw this Fulani man, his name is Muktari Shemu. He is well known to us. He had a rifle with him. Three other Fulani men were also with him. He asked whether we saw some cows around the farm. I never knew he came to harm us because we know him very well. I was responding to his question when he suddenly pulled out his gun and fired at me, but he missed and I escaped.”
While he escaped unhurt, his wife who was heavily pregnant could not run so fast. She became the victim of Shemu’s wrath. By the time Dyer returned with help, his assaulters had vanished and his wife was stone cold dead––shot, slaughtered, slit open, seven-months-old foetus ripped from her womb, her mutilated corpse abandoned in a pool of blood.
“We just returned from the IDP camp where we had taken refuge in the wake of the herdsmen attack, we came to scout for food on the farm when this ugly incident happen,” a grief-stricken Dyer bewailed. “I still find it very difficult to accept the death of my wife. The Fulani herdsman, Muktari Shemu took away her life and the life of our seven months old unborn baby in her womb. I know that I should not question God, but I can’t help asking, why did He take her away from me now? We had good plans to start life over again when we returned back recently. We planned bumper harvest this season to cover the previous loss to herdsmen.”
Drunk with grief, he rambled on: “Mbaaneve and I lived as husband and wife for eight years. Through this period, she was my pillar of support and an encouragement to my life. She was a devoted Christian. She gave her life to Christ completely. I am still in shock over her death.”
We’re endangered
Speaking to Saturday Sun, one of the district heads in the village, Chief Augustine Kuza, who wept openly, lamented that Tivs in the state are endangered.
“It is a bad situation. Every day you hear how Tiv people are being killed, raped and maimed by these mercenaries. This is wickedness.
The particular Fulani man who did this is known, but the security agencies cannot arrest and prosecute him. This speaks volume about the kind of security agents we have in our society. We have nobody to protect us. We survive only by the grace of God.”
Kuza decrying the nonchalant attitude of security personnel to the recurring killings, he avowed that the recent murder has raised a lot of concern among the Tiv in the state.