Following the massacre of no fewer than 40 people of Nimbo community in
Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu by Fulani herdsmen last Monday,
Igbo youths under the aegis of Ohaneze Youth Council (OYC) have given the
herdsmen three days to leave Igbo land or they will be forced out.
The Igbo youths gave the herdsmen till Monday to vacate all Igboland saying
enough is enough even as it was gathered that the attack by the herdsmen has
forced nursing mothers, widows, children and bedridden patients from the affected
communities into exile.
An Igbo traditional ruler, Igwe Rowland Odegbo and Champion newspaper
publisher, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu also condemned the massacre and tasked
President Muhammadu Buhari to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Rising from an emergency meeting held in Enugu on Thursday, the Igbo youths in
their communique noted that the herdsmen “are off-shoots of Boko Haram and
must not be allowed any breeding ground in Igbo land.
Any herdsman who fails to quit South East by Monday will have himself to
blame”.
The communique was signed by the National Vice President of the group, Mazi
Obinna Achuonye and the Chairmen of OYC in seven Igbo- speaking states of
Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Delta, Imo and Rivers.
According to the communique, “never again will Igbo youths fold their arms and
watch our people being massacred by blood-sucking terrorists under the guise of
herdsmen.
Urgent times need drastic measure. We warn all violent Fulani herdsmen to vacate
our farmland, our backyards, our territories and boundaries on or before Monday
next week.
“Even though Ohanaeze Ndigbo will meet over the weekend to discuss this
menace, Igbo youths will not wait until our people are massacred again before we
take action. “If after Monday and the herdsmen are still around, we will direct Igbo
vigilante groups set up by OYC in all the 95 Local Government Areas in South East
to force them out”.
Continuing OYC said it had also uncovered plots through its intelligence unit that
Ebonyi State has been marked as the next target of the rampaging herdsmen. “We
have uncovered plots that their next target is Ebonyi State.
They are coming from Taraba State to attack Ebonyi. We want the Governor of
Ebonyi State and all the security agents in the state to be at alert”, OYC alerted.
OYC claimed that Igbo youths were already collaborating with Ijaw youths and
Middle Belt youths on how to defend their people as the Federal Government
under Buhari has failed to protect them.
“Ijaw youths, and Middle Belt progressives are already waiting for the expiration of
the deadline on Monday. Fulani herdsmen have pushed us to the wall, time to
take action is now or never”, it warned.
Residents of the community who fled their homes as a result of the attack and
now taking refuge at petrol stations, churches, motor parks, hospitals, army
barracks and uncompleted buildings have also recounted their ordeals.
One of the displaced persons, John Ayogu of Nimbo communityrevealed that his
family survives at the mercy of good Samaritans who donate food, water and
fairly used clothes. “We sleep at any available space at night and roam the town
in the day time for food to eat, mostly for the teenagers who were forced out of
school by the barbaric attack and killings in our community.
People have been helpful to the residents of Nimbo, some people took some of
us to their residential homes to take refuge, and many others buy food items and
water for us.
We fled our community without food and cloth.
The number of death was too much for one community to bear. Our children were
forced out of school for a good number of days now; we don’t know when it will
be safe for us to go back to ours farms.
We are predominantly farmers but the herdsmen could not allow us settle in our
farms as they rape women and young girls. We no longer allow our younger girls
to go to the farms for fear of being defiled by Fulani herdsmen” Utazi Chikodili of
Nimbo in tears at Royal Cross hospital said, ‘’Fulani herdsmen have finished our
people, turned indigenes of Nimbo to beggers.
We wander about everyday looking for food and water to stay alive with the little
ones who could do nothing but to cry when they are hungry. We sleep at this
hospital every day and night, people do come here to give us food and water, and
we take our bath at midnight because of space.
Ajougwu Chisom (15) an SS 2 student at Community Secondary School, Nimbo
and Ugwoke Regina (10) in primary six, said, ‘’we went to buy food items with the
little money people gave to us. We are staying with our sister and our parents but
we want to go back to school”
The traditional ruler of Nteje in Oyi local government area of Anambra State, Igwe
Rowland Odegbo has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to set up a panel of
inquiry to look into the remote and immediate causes of the activities of Fulani
herdsmen who have been killing people in various parts of the country in recent
times.
Speaking in an interview, Igwe Odegbo, who is a prominent member of Anambra
State Council of Traditional Rulers, said the panel of inquiry should consist of
security operatives, leaders of thought and traditional rulers. He described as
unfortunate a situation whereby herdsmen swoop on communities and slaughter
people and wondered “why people should be killed because of cows”
He said: “President Buhari is a Fulani man and his silence on this matter is not
sending any good signal. He was elected to protect the lives of all Nigerians
irrespective of their tribe and he should not encourage a section of the country to
threaten the lives of other Nigerians. “Grazing areas should only be established in
the North for the people who do the business of rearing cows.
They should not come down to the south to avoid conflict with communities who
are mainly farmers.”
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