Rivers State clerics warn of impending Fulani attack after herdsmen appear with weapons

FEARS are growing that Fulani cattle herdsmen may soon strike in Rivers State after warnings that dozens of them were sighted armed with dangerous weapons in some forests across the state with a view of launching an attack.

 

Over recent months, Fulani herdsmen have stepped up their attacks on farming communities across Nigeria, unleashing terror as they attack farming community with AK47 assault rifles. In response to clashes with local farming communities, the herdsmen have wrecked a terrible vengeance on numerous villages, sometimes leaving dozens dead in bloody and gruesome attacks.

 

Yesterday, cleric across Rivers State raised an alarm, alleging that suspected herdsmen with arms had invaded several communities in the state.  The clergymen, from different platforms, including the Christian Association of Nigeria (Can), the Directorate of Religious Freedom and the Church Collaboration of Christian Lawyers Fellowship of Nigeria, urged Governor Nyesom Wike to take the threat seriously.

 

Reverend Isaac Anyanasikike, the chairman of Can's Rivers State chapter, stated that the herdsmen were already intimidating land owners in some rural communities of the state and acquiring land for grazing. He added that tension was already rising in several communities following the presence of the herdsmen.

 

“It has come to our knowledge that Fulani herdsmen or cattle rearers have constituted themselves into an embarrassing nuisance in rural communities in the various local government areas of the state. Here, they graze their cattle with impunity on lands and or farms belonging to the natives, accompanied by their propensity for violence and other horrible forms of criminality whenever they are challenged by the land owners.

 

"That the Fulani herdsmen are still roaming the forests and farmlands in Rivers State with dangerous weapons and other instruments of violence without the security and law enforcement agents doing anything to check this pervasive use of unauthorised or unlicensed arms, thereby leaving the lives of the majority of our rural community dwellers at avoidable risk is unacceptable,” Reverend Anyanasikike added.

 

Demanding urgent action, the clerics urged residents of the state, especially farmers in the rural communities to be vigilant while on their daily businesses in the forests. So far, Rivers State has been spared any of the gruesome attacks that the Fulani herdsmen have wrecked across other parts of Nigeria.