Wives of herdsmen are harvesting our crops - Barkin Ladi residents cry out

chika ebuzor

July 21, 2018 3:41 PM

Some of the residents said they took loans to plant the crops with the hope to pay back with proceeds from the harvest.

Residents of Barkin Ladi one of the communities attacked recently by men suspected to be Fulani herdsmen have cried out for help.

According to Vanguard, the residents, who are mostly farmers, say the wives of herdsmen are harvesting the crops on their farmlands.

In June 2018, over 100 people were killed and many others displaced after gunmen attacked Razat, Ruku, Nyarr, Kura and Gana-Ropp villages of Gashish District in Barkin Ladi local government area of Plateau state.

Residents narrate their ordeal

Some of the residents said that they took loans to plant the crops with the hope to pay back with proceeds from the harvest.

A survivor, Pam Uba spoke to Vanguard saying “Before my father’s death on May 2 this year, we had cultivated some farmlands but a week after his burial, we discovered that the Fulani people grazed their cattle on the farms and destroyed everything.

“After the incident, we cultivated the farms again but last week Tuesday when we went to harvest our Irish potatoes, the farms were empty. They had harvested everything and after harvesting the potatoes, they put their cows in the farms to eat the maize.”

A community leader, Da Sambo Chollom alsosaid “I am highly disappointed and angry with what has happened because by now, I had wanted my people to go back home but it is not possible because there is nothing for us to eat as all the potatoes, the maize and other crops have been destroyed.

“The herders have plucked virtually everything from our farms; we don’t know what to do. To enable us scavenge the few crops they left, we had to seek the assistance of the Mobile Police Force to go to the farms as we were tired of going to the Operation Safe Haven who would not respond to us when we sought their assistance.

“We are at the camp at Werreh, life there has not been easy. The people who are harvesting our crops are people we know, they are the Hausa people with whom we lived together. Sometimes, whenever we were going to our farms we would see them with hoes and bags coming from harvesting our crops.

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“Sometimes when we summoned courage to go to our farm, they would come and meet us there. The Fulani herdsmen who came to attack us were harboured in their houses and have gone but the Hausa people in the community are the ones harvesting our crops.”

Another farmer, Ezra Matawal said that the herdsmen destroyed the crops on his farm (one hectare) and left him empty handed.

The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) in a statement issued by the chairman of its North-Central zone, Danladi Ciroma, after the attack, of their stolen cows.

chika ebuzor