An Open Letter To Gov Simon Lalong

Icommiserate with you and the entire people of Plateau State on the recent attack in the state by the armed Fulani herdsmen which sent almost 200 people or more to their early graves. It is very unfortunate that the government, which you are part of, cannot secure the lives of the people as one of its duties and responsibilities as contained in the constitution.

However, I have been listening and reading your speeches or comments as captured by both the electronic and print media concerning the killings in Benue State by the same Fulani armed men.

Sir, regarding the attacks in Benue State by the armed herdsmen, you have for long blamed Governor Samuel Ortom and linked the attacks and killings in Benue to the signing into law of the bill that banned the open grazing in the state. According to you, Ortom shouldn’t have signed into law the bill in question. You went further and described the action of Governor Ortom towards open grazing by the Fulani herdsmen as improper. You finally advised Ortom to revisit his decision in order to bring peace and unity in the state.

Sir, I am still asking myself why did the Fulani herdsmen attack and kill your people when you have not signed into law a bill that can prohibit the open grazing in Plateau State.

Before now, Fulani herdsmen were only after the Tiv people in Benue and Taraba, killing them like chickens. During President Obasanjo’s administration, when T.Y.Danjuma was the Minister of Defence, Nigerian soldiers were sent to Taraba in the name of peacekeeping regarding the conflict involving the Tiv, the Fulani and the Jukun. Nigerian soldiers went there and took side with the Fulani and Jukun against the Tiv. The army helped Fulani herdsmen and Jukun to attack and kill the Tiv in Taraba and Benue respectively and accused the Tiv people of killing 18 soldiers to justify their action.

As the killings of Tiv people were ongoing, some Igbo people were happy. According to them, during the Biafra war, Tiv people refused to join them to fight the Nigerian government that was dominated by Fulani people.

Also, some people accused the Tiv of always stealing from the Fulani herdsmen, their cattle. They described Tiv as stubborn people who like trouble.

Now, the Fulani herdsmen have graduated from killing only the Tiv, they are killing Igbo, Idoma, Yoruba, Biron and many more. The herdsmen are killing almost everywhere in the country. Why are the Fulani herdsmen killing everywhere and everybody except those that are practicing the same religion with them? May be everybody is stealing their cow, maybe we are the ones troubling the herdsmen, maybe we should peacefully hand over our lands to them, maybe we should allow them to continue raping our women without reporting them to the compromised authorities, maybe we should all begin to practise the same religion the herdsmen practise and maybe we should surrender everything we have to the herdsmen including ourselves.

President Muhammadu Buhari visited Plateau State to sympathise with the people of Plateau and held a closed door meeting with the leaders of Barkin Ladi Local Government Area where the herdsmen attacked and committed genocide. In the meeting, the president advised the leaders to go back to their areas and teach their people how to tolerate Fulani herdsmen and live with them in peace. This is the same thing President Buhari said when he visited Benue State after the New Year killing in the state by his brothers, armed Fulani herdsmen.

How can people tolerate and live in peace with the Fulani herdsmen that are killing them, raping their women, destroying their houses, converting their farms into grazing fields for their cattle and sending them to IDP camps? The same president who before now said that Fulani herdsmen are foreigners and Ghadafi’s hit-men, want us to tolerate their excesses and live with them in peace. As if that is not enough, the same president is also planning to take over our land and build ranches for the Fulani herdsmen, who according to him, are Ghadafi’s hit-men.