In a chat with The Nation, Ciroma, who expressed sadness
over the attacks, said
“These attacks are retaliatory. As much as I don’t support
the killing of human being, the truth must be told that those who carried out
the attacks must be on revenge mission. There have been recent reports of
cow rustling and destruction of farms between Berom farmers and Fulani
herdsmen. The people carrying out these criminal activities are well known to
the communities but the communities are hiding them. Fulani herdsmen have
lost about 300 cows in the last few weeks – 94 cows were rustled by armed Berom
youths in Fan village, another 36 cows were killed by Berom youths. In addition
to that, 174 cattle were rustled and the criminals disappeared with them to
Mangu.
“Since these cows were not found, no one should expect peace
in the areas. Even soldiers that went after the criminals to recover the
rustled cows were shot by the armed rustlers and eventually escaped with all
the cows. The government of Governor Lalong has done a lot to restore
peace, but the criminal elements hiding among their people are the ones
frustrating these peace efforts.
“Though the security agencies have tried, they need to do
more by being fair to all parties; they should not neglect any report presented
by Fulani of Berom because such report can lead to attacks and deaths if not
properly handled. Criminals thrive a lot in Berom communities, but when
the Fulani, who are always victims of their crime, react with attacks, they
blame the government. These communities have leaders, why hide the
criminals? They should fish out the criminals and hand them over to security
agencies to avoid death of innocent ones.
“As it is today, the Berom man cannot go to farm, the Fulani
cannot breed his cows in Berom Land. This can be stopped if the security
agencies do more than what they are currently doing. The attacks will stop as
soon as the security agencies stop Berom youths from stealing Fulani cows” he
said
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