Prior to commenting on a land dispute between two communities, it is very germane to allude to the biblical story about the two women came to King Solomon, both claiming ownership of a child. To test the two women and thereby resolve the matter, the King said that the child should be divided into two with each woman given half of the child. One of the women quickly agreed but the other one opposed the King’s decision and begged that the child should be handed over to the other woman, who had accepted the King’s decision. The second woman’s entreaty showed that she was the real mother of the child, because she realised that ‘dividing’ the child was tantamount to killing it, which was what the other woman wanted to achieve having lost her own due to natural causes.

The ongoing crisis between the people of Mbakunu in Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State and the Ugep community in Obanliku LGA of Cross River State over a land should be looked into and addressed promptly before it is too late.

The land in question has been in dispute for long and the concerned authority was yet to determine the ownership of the land. However, the Ugep people boycotted the due process and hastily sold the land to Fulani herdsmen despite the warning from the authority that both parties should stay away from the land pending the resolution of the case regarding it. The hasty decision of the Ugep people has demonstrated that they are not the real owners of the land. Their action was blatant because if truly they owned the land as claimed, they would not have sold it Fulani herdsmen.

Ugep people ought to be aware that Fulani herdsmen are problematic and have been killing people in almost every part of the country, raping women, burning houses and converting people’s land to grazing fields for their cattle. Yet, the Ugep people, with no qualms, sold the land in dispute to the Fulani herdsmen, without waiting for the official pronouncement that would establish the true ownership of the disputed land.

As if that was not enough, they joined forces with the herdsmen to drive the Tiv people away from the place to enable the herdsmen take over the land. It is unfortunate the Ugep have demonstrated their naiveté and appeared to be completely unaware of what has been happening in the country. They should not have contacted the Fulani herdsmen in the first place, not to talk of selling the land to them.

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Ugep people should know that after they might have finished helping the herdsmen in wiping out the Tiv people in Mbakunu, the same herdsmen will turn against them and take their land as well. The case of a respected retired army General from the Christian Northeast, should have taught them good lesson in not having alliance with Fulani herdsmen. During the first tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Jukun people joined forces with the Fulani herdsmen to kill the Tiv in Taraba and Benue states. Through the facilitation of the retired general, the army was deployed to the area, ostensibly to restore peace, but the truth was that soldiers helped the Jukun and Fulani herdsmen in the inter-tribal war that led to massacre of Tiv people.

Having fully become entrenched, the same Fulani herdsmen turned around against the Jukun. The intensity was so much that the same retired general was forced to cry out against the Jukun, urging them to defend themselves against the invaders killing, maimimg, raping women and sacking communities and taking over the land. It was a case of an evil alliance that went awry.

Against the background of the foregoing, I want to appeal to the Ugep people to urgently correct their mistake by settling the herdsmen now and thereafter resolve their differences with the people of Mbakunu before it is too late. Fulani herdsmen cannot spare them after finishing with the Tiv people in Mbakunu. Be wise!

 

• Awunah Pius Terwase, writes from Mpape, Abuja