- Alleges Police Collusion, Inaction
By Amos Aar
FARMERS in the rural community of Ogene, in Amejo Ward of Okpokwu LGA, Benue South Senatorial District, have cried out to the Benue State Government following persistent destruction of their farms by herds of cattle belonging to Fulani herders.
The farmers, numbering 11, accused two Fulani herders, one Alhaji Bature and one Alhaji Gizo, as the principal herders who have persistently been grazing their cattle in Ogene Community and very often brazenly allowed their herds of cattle to invade farms to feed on crops and farm produce.
The farmers also accused men of the Nigerian Police Force of colluding and enabling the herders’ brazen impunity in the invasion and destruction of farms.
A written complaint made available to National Record listed the farmers who are victims of the cattle invasion to include Mr Onaji Friday, Mr Olekwu Benedict, Mrs Ejeikwu Aladi, Mr Francis Inalegwu, Mrs Abah Rose, Mr Onaji Alexander, Mrs Adah Omaliye, Mr Audu Leonard, Mr Agbo Everest, Mr Onaji Stephen and Mr Olekwu Monday.
Crops alleged to have been destroyed by the open grazing include large hectares of cassava, beans, yam tubas and seed yams.
According to the farmers, the matter had first been reported at the Divisional Police Headquarters, Ugbokolo on December 18, 2023 before Inspector Pius Ogbaka. They alleged that while all the details required of them by Inspector Ogbaka were provided, he however failed to take any step or respond to the complaint by inviting the herders until the herders again led their cattle to raze down other farms on January 19, 2024.
Even after the second farm invasion was reported the same day (January 19, 2024) before Inspector Ogbaka, the farmers alleged that he also failed to act.
Following the police inaction, the farmers stated that they returned to the police station on January 23, 2024 to find out why four days after the second report, the police had still not acted, and they were told by Ogbaka that the police lacked the manpower to do so.
Following the disappointment from the Police Division in Ugbokolo, the farmers resolved to take the matter to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) in Makurdi. This, the farmers did on January 30, 2024.
“Then, after having all this disappointed act from Ugbokolo Police Division, we now took the report to state CID at Makurdi on the 30th January 2024. Then the State CID now sent signal to them that they should do the arrest of those Fulani and bring them to Makurdi at State CID, but still no steps, no action.
“So, when they discovered that the Ugbokolo police men don’t want to do the arrest, they now sent two detectives from the State CID to come and do the arrest of the two Fulanis – Alhaji Bature and Alhaji Gizo,” the farmers narrated in their statement of complaint.
The detectives, upon arrival, were said to have reported their presence at Ugbokolo Police Division before heading to the Ruga in Ogene Community where they identified themselves and explained their mission and requested that the attention of the two Fulani herders was needed in Makurdi. Although the two were said to have travelled, Alhaji Gizo, was able to speak on phone with the police through his son’s phone. Gizo then told the detective that he had travelled to Ankpa and would meet them at Ugbokolo police station but he was told that his son, Ayuba would follow them to Ugbokolo.
According to the statement of complaint, when the phone was handed over to Gizo’s son, Ayuba, he and the other young Fulani herders ran into the herd of cattle and commanded them (cattle) in a language, a command which the cows to scurry dangerously towards the police, and scared them away.
The farmers said after the incident, the detectives then went to inspect some of the damaged farms before returning to Ugbokolo and left an instruction to arrest the two Fulani’s and bring them to the State CID, Makurdi for interrogation, a directive they said was not obeyed.
However, on June 29 this year, one of the farmers, Mr Onaji Friday, with the aid of other farmers, was able to apprehend a cow when Bature’s herd of cattle again invaded his farm. Although he was said to had taken the apprehended cow to the police station in Ugbokolo, Inspector Ogbaka, however released it to Bature without his knowledge.
This singular incident, the farmers stated, clearly illustrated that the police in Ugbokolo were instead colluding with the Fulanis and encouraging them to continue with their destruction of farms.
Speaking with National Record in Makurdi, one of the farmers who is also a public servant, Mr Francis Inalegwu, said the greatest enablers of the destruction of farms and other forms of carnage being visited on several communities by herders in Benue are the policemen serving in rural communities.
He and his colleague farmers are therefore calling on the Benue State Government to set up a proper mechanism to effectively implement the anti-open grazing law or abrogate the law and tell communities to secure themselves.
In an interview with our reporter, Inalegwu corroborated how Fulani herders invade farms with impunity and destroy livelihoods in Ogene and other communities of Amejo Ward, lamenting alleged inaction and perversion of justice by the police after inducement by Fulani herders.
Inalegwu pointed out that having lost confidence in the police in Ugbokolo, the farmers resolved to take their case to the police in Makurdi only to experience similar treatment of indifference.
He said while the farmers are ready and pleading with the police to take the matter to court to seek for justice and compensation for their destroyed farms, the police have been totally unhelpful.
He revealed that the farmers had rejected initial overtures from the Fulanis to compensate all of them with N500,000 because they deemed the amount as insufficient compensation for the damaged farms.
Inalegwu therefore repeated the plea for the intervention of Benue State authorities to not only help in making the Fulani herders to compensate them for the destruction caused but to also compel them to obey the anti-open grazing law in Ogene and other neighbouring communities in Amejo and Edumoga land.
According to Inalegwu, may no longer be reliable authority to cure the brazen impunity of the Fulani herders as they are now undoubtedly compromised.
He said Alhaji Bature had one day during an altercation with the farmers revealed that no report against them at the Police Division in Ugbokolo will be effective.
“One day, when we threatened to report Bature to the police and later take him to court, that he is here destroying our property, he never took us serious. We told him; your cow is your farm and our farm is our farm; that is where we benefit from. Now, we’re going to call police for you to arrest you.
“Bature then replied that if it is Ugbokolo police, we should go and sit down. We don’t need to waste our time because for Ugbokolo police, there is nothing there. I now said, okay, in that case, we’re taking this case to state CID, we’ll not go to Ugbokolo again.” Inalegwu said.
Asked why Bature said they should not waste their time to report the matter to the police in Ugbokolo, Inalegwu replied: “Because he used to give them money and it has shown itself. As we are going there, the truth has come out. So, we moved from home and came to state CID and made a report.
“It was police officer, Okpe Ezekiel, who opened a file for us that particular time and they now asked us that we should mobilise them, that they are going to send two detectives to go and see the scene of the crime. Then, we now settled everything and the two detectives went to make an arrest because they called Ugbokolo to assist them and make the arrest.
“They said they lacked manpower. So even that particular time, I told Inspector Ogbaka, who is the IPO in Ugbokolo, that now you people say you lack manpower, but if Fulani come to report now that people have killed their cow, you will come and arrest our people. That time you will not lack manpower. That was when we went and apprehended one of the cows. We called the police from Ugbokolo to come and take the cow. They came and took the cow to the station. But before we could come the next day in the morning, they released the cow to Fulani.”
Inalegwu continued: “They now said anytime we need them, they are going to bring them. That we should not worry. Instead of them to bring the cow along with those Fulani when we were coming to the State CID here, they said they used bond, that Fulani has taken the cow on bail, that we even wounded the cow with machete.
“Then, I told Ogbaka that I am also a security personnel, and asked him if he took the picture of where the cow was wounded with machete? Did you snap [the photo] as your evidence? He now said I should not go far. In that case, we are going to settle this, that or whatever.
“So, when we came here and made the report, they sent two detectives to go and arrest those Fulani. They went there quite okay. I did not even go with them. On reaching there, Fulani used cow to chase them away,” Inalegwu narrated, stating that the matter is being handled at the State CID by Inspector Andrew Zamani, popularly known as S.O.
Inalegwu alleged that S.O. once told them that their (farmers’) case lacked merit without any proof or explanation, a situation he said was immediately challenged by one of his colleagues.
“So, our major problem now is police. The Fulanis are even invading farms more and more. You will report the matter and the police will not do anything. Even in this our matter, the Fulani’s are no longer coming, the police know where they are and they also know their surety’s house but they cannot go for their arrest. The police are not handling the case well,” Inalegwu alleged.
He further narrated: “The accused person who is the Fulani, they are not coming to the police station but they are still in our place, destroying our property. The police are shielding them.
“By the nature of my work, I do go to court on a daily basis, I therefore believe that it is the court that I can find justice. But when we come today, police will tell us that we should exercise patience, and I ask, till when?
“These people continue destroying our property. Now, they say anytime Alhaji Ardo, the Benue State chairman of Miyetti Allah, who stood as surety for the Fulani herders, comes to station there, they were going to arrest him. But what if Ardo does not come at all? In fact, the IPO, Mr Solo, the young man is even tired.”
Efforts to speak to Bature and Gizo failed. While National Record could not obtain Bature’s number, calls to Gizo’s mobile number obtained from the farmers did not go through up to press time.
When contacted to know if the Benue State Police Command was aware of the case as claimed by the farmers, the status of the case and what was the reason for the alleged delay in taking the matter to court as demanded, Benue State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Superintendent of Police (SP) Sewuese Anene, did not respond to a WhatsApp message sent to her.
The incident in Ogene community reflects ongoing tensions between Fulani herdsmen and Benue communities. Similar incidents have occurred in Logo LGA, resulting in fatalities.
The Catholic community in Ayati Village, Ukum LGA, also protested military inaction following an attack on July 2, 2024.
