On Monday this week, Fulani cattle rearers armed to the teeth with AK47 assault rifles attacked the Ukpabi Nimbo community in Enugu State killing about 48 people. Over recent months, the growing menace of Fulani herdsmen clashing with local communities over grazing rights has escalated frighteningly, often with bloody and fatal consequences.
Exasperated by the inability of security agencies to address the matter, the senate has summoned the service chiefs to explain what is going on. Apparently senators suspect that the dastardly acts were perpetrated by fleeing Boko Haram members so have asked military chiefs brief it on measures they are putting in place to forestall the spread of terrorist activities all over the country.
In response to the attacks, the National Assembly has also constituted an ad-hoc committee chaired by the Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, to organise a public hearing on the rampaging attacks on innocent Nigerians by Fulani herdsmen and come up with recommendations capable of tackling the crisis. The resolution setting up the committee was the aftermath of a motion moved by Senator Chukwuka Utazi from Enugu North, during which he lamented the killing of scores of residents of Ukpabi Nimbo community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu State.
Senators asked the National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) and other relevant agencies to urgently dispatch relief materials to the affected community as well as neighbouring Nkpologu, Uvuru, Ugbene-Ajima and Adani communities to alleviate the plights of persons displaced by the attack. It also called on security agencies of the nation to improve its intelligence gathering and be proactive instead of merely reacting to threats to internal security especially in cases where there is credible intelligence to act upon with a view to safeguarding lives and property.
In addition, the senators also asked security agencies to enforce laws on arms’ possession against unauthorised persons just as they appealed to the Nigerian Police to expedite action on the establishment of a rapid response police unit around the communities where there have been attacks. Senator Utazi told his colleagues that the herdsmen entered into the community through Enugu State border with Kogi State shooting, hacking, matcheting, slitting the throats of hapless residents and razing down buildings.
Furthermore, Senator Utazi noted that only three months ago, Abbi, a neighbouring community to Nimbo was attacked by Fulani herdsmen whom he said killed scores of people and houses and barns set ablaze. He noted that Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area now faces extinction as a result of protracted attacks on communities in the council area.
In his contribution, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce of Bayelsa East described the herdsmen as the worst group of terrorists who have been maiming, killing, stealing and raping women in the country. Senator Murray-Bruce, it was gruesome acts like this which precipitated the 1967-1970 civil war, pointing out that the situation had started resulting in reprisal attacks which he said would end up in a guerrilla warfare, the battle he said could not be won by anyone.
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