Militias terrorizing parts of Plateau State have intensified their onslaught in recent times, killing more than 300 people within the space of three months. In this interview by ISAAC SHOBAYO, the Chief Executive Officer, Emancipation Centre for Crisis Victims in Nigeria, who is also the National President, of Berom Youth Moulders (BYM), Mr. Solomon Dalyop Nwatiri, speaks on the attacks and other issues. Excerpts:

Plateau State, specifically Plateau North and some parts of Plateau Central, have been grappling with attacks by Fulani militias for quite some time. What is responsible for this?

The quest for land grabbing and ethnic cleansing are responsible for this, as is the desire to have political penetration, among other factors. Why I said quest for land grabbing is because that is what is in vogue among the elements behind the attacks. In Plateau alone, we have not less than 102 communities and villages that have been sacked and are currently under the occupation of the Fulani militias, who have infiltrated the state long before now. Also, this can be linked to ethnic cleansing, which is ravaging Plateau State today. People are being killed without any justification, just as we witnessed in recent times where over 200 people were killed in the Mangu Local Government area of the state, coupled with the recent attack in Riyom local government where over 20 people were killed. It wasn’t a surprise attack because we got local intelligence that the Fulani militias were coming to attack Rim, Jol, Kwi, Alle, and other neighboring villages. It was reported to the appropriate authorities.

The attackers, however, struck a day after the information was released, and they came in large numbers. It is an orchestrated plan to kill the people and scare the survivors away from their lands. So land grabbing cannot be separated from ethnic cleansing because once the people are uprooted, the land belongs to them. It is unfortunate that this kind of barbaric attack takes place in a country where there are laws to regulate people’s activities. But it seems like a compromise, or there is no political will to curtail the situation. Our belief is that the new administration both at the state and federal levels would rise to the occasion, but should things continue like this, I can see communities, especially in Beron Land, going into extinction.

What is the response of the government and the security agencies to this menace of land grabbing?

Of course, the government’s response has always been that they will look into it. Simon Lalong, who constituted a task force on anti-land grabbing based on the provision of the anti-land grabbing law of Plateau State, said that there will be a task force that will look into the incidences of land grabbing, and our expectation was that the government would then follow through on its word with action by inaugurating the task force, but it went on in silence. If the government had the willpower, then the incidence of land grabbing would have been taken care of. Even though the constitution provides that everyone has the right to reside anywhere in the country. That is freedom of movement. There is also a provision on how to acquire land, but these militias have unfettered power as they arrogate land to themselves without the consent and approval of the constituted authority. Only the government has the right to acquire land compulsorily, and even at that, there must be adequate compensation by the government. In this case, the militias are not the government; they are elements that have connections with ISWAP. Based on the intelligence gathered, most of these attackers are from the north-east and north-west, and nothing is being done to check their incursion into Plateau State. The only solace that we have now is the assurance by the new state and federal governments that the insecurity will be tackled, believing that some positive will come out of their assurances; otherwise, we may see a worse situation. The issue of the government’s raising up to its constitutional mandate is what we are looking forward to seeing, especially this government’s marching words with action.

Based on the available information, the natives and the Fulanis have been living together for a long time without any problems. Where is the missing link in this situation?

The law is very explicit and express in terms of who is an offender or who is a party to an offense. The fact that mercenaries have been brought from outside the state is a serious concern to us, the natives, and the question of who actually brought them is a question to be answered. It was the Fulani that we have hosted over time that brought these mercinaries for their territorial expansion agenda. Despite the ones they have, they still want to have more, and you can see by implication that they want larger land so that political coloration will come into this and they will begin to contest for political offices. But what have they contributed to Plateau State other than terrorism? Yet they are still saying they have contributed to the development of Plateau State. Already, they have taken over the source of livelihood for the natives because, by grabbing those lands, they have killed agriculture and as well renamed the places they occupied. The people engaged in dry and rainy season farming, so now that the Fulani have taken over, they have taken over Shono and other places. If you go to Shono now, all their plantains are being harvested by the Fulanis; in just one week, one person can harvest two trucks’ worth of bananas. Ever since their displacement in 2014, the Fulani have been the ones harvesting those banana plantations.

The local Fulani are equally claiming that the natives are the aggressors; there were instances where they accused the natives of cattle rustling.

The allegation is to justify their killings, but they should know that the Berom too had cows before now. They have rustled the cows of people in Bachit. In Riyom District, the cows belonging to the natives of Fan and other places rustled. They will always hide under the guise of cattle rustling to unleash mayhem. Cattle rustling is a criminal act that, once done, should be reported to the authorities concerned, like the police and other sister agencies. Why should cattle rustling justify mayhem and acts of genocide against innocent people? Cattle rustling is just a ploy. Once these people want to attack the natives, they will always come up with false accusations. I want to correct one impression: there is nothing like herders and farmers clashing; this is another angle that the media needs to get right. This might be the case in other places, but not in Plateau State. What is happening in Plateau State is purely an act of terrorism, banditry, and other forms of criminality. The nature of the killings in Plateau State did not reflect this. The Fulani also farm; why have they not been destroying their farms? Just yesterday, they killed eleven people in Kwi. The night before this morning, they destroyed almost all of the farmland. It was reported to the security, but the security said they don’t know how to approach it because it is already night. I don’t blame them; they are humans like any other. Even the security men are not safe in the hands of the Fulani. We have a situation where some people were arrested only to be taken to Abuja and returned within the space of one week to continue with their nefarious activities, which became more dreaded. If the natives are as aggressive as they claim, they wouldn’t have accommodated them in the first instance.

The immediate past administration claimed to have commenced what it called reconstruction of destroyed communities to enable those displaced to return to their ancestral homes before the end of its administration. How many communities have been resettled?

This is just a political statement; there is nothing like resettlement and reconstruction for the IDPs. I did not see any efforts on the part of the immediate past government to resettle any group of people. What the former government did in 2020 was that the IDPs of Ghashishi were said to have been resettled; what was given to them were some bundles of roofing materials and ten measures of grains for people who had lost everything they had. After some days, the people left and returned to the town, and the governor went to close down all the IDP camps without anything. The question is: why will the government ask them to return and to cohabit with those who have taken over their houses? That is insensibility on the part of the government, and this has further emboldened the terrorists to continue with their onslaught against innocent people.

The previous government, on different occasions, had brought both the natives and Fulani together for reconciliation, but shortly after, you see them returning to the trenches. In your opinion, what is responsible for such a failure or breakdown?

That purported reconciliation was just a cosmetic one, just to give the impression that the government is on ground; the governor was not on ground to manage the security situation in the state, and the reconciliation was never monitored. In the real sense of the word, there was no reconciliation; there is no way you will reconcile somebody who is already armed; we are unarmed people. You must disarm the armed person first, dislodge the bad elements, and then bring them to the round table when they are on equal footing. But when there is imbalance between two parties, the reconciliation will be an encouragement to someone who is already armed to continue, and at any given time he will overrun you, and that is what we are witnessing today. Shortly after the election, Plateau recorded about 400 deaths. There has been no effort to resettle the IDPs since 2021. In 2018, when the former Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, visited Plateau State, there was a pledge of N10 billion for the reconstruction and resettlement of the IDPs on the Plateau. Up until today, the money has not been released. This is a lack of political will on the part of the government, but we have seen the ongoing resettlement and all the packages that the federal government is providing for the people in the North-East, and we are being treated as if we are not Nigerians. You can see the bias on the part of the government. This bias suggests an encouragement to the militias and bandits to continue their onslaught on the plateau.

What do you think the government can do to stop the attacks on Plateau State communities and villages?

Mobile policemen should be deployed to the troubled parts of Plateau State. During the administration of the former Governor Jonah Jang, mobile policemen were deployed, and there was relative peace. In their case, they swung into action. If there is a deployment of mobile policemen, particularly in these crisis-affected areas, I want to believe there will be an improvement. Presently, Operation Safe Haven, Sector 6, is making remarkable efforts; it deserves commendation, but there is still much to be done. I am also appealing to the Federal Government to revisit the promise of N10 billion to resettle the IDPs in the state because their number is increasing. There are several situations where people have been made IDPs several times because they are often attacked wherever they run. Also, the locations of militias on the plateau should be spotted, and they should be dislodged.

Where is the location?

We have Fass, which has been renamed Tafawa; we have Guava, which was Dakas before now; and we have Dankum, which has been renamed Mahanga; that’s a terrorist enclave because that is where most of the attacks, not just in the Plateau but the entire Middle Belt, are being coordinated. We have repeatedly cried out that these are the abodes of these elements, but the government refused to listen. If the security agencies can dislodge them from those places, Plateau will know peace. Also, places like Shonon and Shau have been taken over, so there should be dislodgement of those individuals. Those identified as perpetrators should be arrested and investigated. The Task Force on the Anti-land-grabbing Law of Plateau State should be inaugurated so that it will swing into action and investigate the incidence of land grabbing in the true sense of the word. There should be a ban on open grazing because it has become a strategy for unleashing terror on the native inhabitants.