By Raymond Gukas, Jos Residents of Sopp Community of Bachit District, Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State have suffered...
By Raymond Gukas, Jos
Residents of Sopp Community of Bachit District, Riyom Local
Government Area of Plateau State have suffered severe losses in the hands of
suspected Fulani militias who stormed their farms and cut down crops that could
have been due for harvest by September.
This development has heightened fears in the people who are
now contemplating abandoning their farms for fear of subsequent attacks, if
help from the relevant authorities don’t reach them on time.
A visit by Apex News Exclusive to the affected farms found
out that four of the cultivated lands of maize, guinea corn, sweet potatoes
were mowed down by marauding herdsmen who went over night and perpetrated the
dastardly act.
According to Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri, of the Emancipation
Centre for Crisis Victims in Nigeria, (ECCVN), the development has “invariably
plunged economic hardship on the affected native victims ”
The victims of the attack are Pastor Zakka Dalyop his wife
and five children, Sunday Coma with wife and five children, Clement Pam his
wife and three children, Labi Danjuma, his wife and two children as well as
Dadongs Moses Coma his wife and five children.
In reaction to the said mischief, Mr. Dadongs Moses Goma,
for himself and on behalf of the affected persons lamented that, “after armed
invasions meted out on us in 2014 as a result of which many of our people were
killed and villages sacked, we have again started witnessing another dimension
of the battle, which is economic warfare targeted at farmed crops about to get
ripe for harvest hopefully by the end of August.
But the crops have now been mowed down by suspected Fulani
herdsmen who possibly migrated from Bauchi State….” adding that, “these are the
few nearby farmlands accessible for cultivation.”
So far, he regretted that most lands have been forcefully
taken over by way of armed invasions and threats thereby depriving natives
rights thereto, as it was also gathered that sometimes in May/June, 2020, a
group of Fulani aggressively stormed and drove away natives of Sopp from
cultivating ancestral lands with claim that the said lands have been forcefully
taken over by the them.
This has always been the claims of the marauders that land
belongs to God and must be freely used by them and not owned by natives as an
inheritance. Thus, they (Fulani) have inalienable right to freely use any land
of their choice without protest, Solomon Mwantiri lamented.
As a result of this
dispositions, “ECCVN calls on all relevant authorities, Civil Society
Organizations-CSOs and other critical stakeholders to, as a matter of urgency,
rise up to the occasion of land grabs and mischievous activities of Fulani
herdsmen which are two sides of the same coin that are intractable to looming
economic backwardness and unprecedented hunger lingering on native communities
of Plateau State.
“We appealed that a food intervention packages be made as
humanitarian outreach to all crisis victims, especially those affected by
recent destruction of farmed crops pervasively carried out by agents of
mischief in the recent time. This will greatly cushion an impending economic
asperity caused on the helpless victims”, he stressed.
Source
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