Lose over 200 cows in one week

We are all aware that  the terrorist sect, Boko Haram are wreacking havoc in the North east of the country, leaving in its wake, deaths, destruction of properties worth billions of naira. Also, families have been displaced and turned to refugees in neighbouring countries of Niger, Chad and Cameroon. The latest to join the sect in terrorising Nigerians are cattle rustlers who rape women, sack communities, thus impoverishing herdsmen.

It was reported recently that cattle rustlers sacked 10 communities in Zamfara State leaving several peopled injured.

The latest to taste the bitter pill of armed cattle rustlers suspected to be masterminded by Fulani herdsmen are Karu and environs, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The marauders attacked and stole cows worth millions of naira.

The incessant attacks from these gun- wielding enemies have forced operators of farms in the area to sell off their farms and animals.

According to the account of some of the affected farmers, the situation is even compounded because of the allegations that men of the Nigeria Police Force and the Department of State Security (DSS), have refused to come to their aid.

Abuja Metro learnt that in the wee hours of Saturday, August 16, armed cattle rustlers attacked Valerie Farms Nigeria Limited, Kurudu and took 56 cows out of which 30 were pregnant.

The gunmen whom they described as violent and wicked came into the area through a nearby hill that demarcates Kurudu and Asokoro and operated for hours unchallenged.

One of the affected farmers who will not want his name in print said, “I called the Police control room, even the office of the Department of State Security (DSS) for hours that day until my battery went flat, nobody picked.

“It seems the policemen were afraid to check their activities as they refused to come to our rescue throughout the hours the suspected Fulani gunmen held us hostage and robbed us.”

Another farm owner said that “Any time they visit your farm, they operate in a commando like style without any security operatives to stop them.”

The owner of Valerie Farms Nigeria Limited, a veterinary doctor whose farms share fence with Post Army retirement Estate in Kuduru narrated how about 11 men with rifles stormed his farm and left with all the cows he had been tending since 2006; and that wrecked his business.

He put the value of the animals stolen by the herdsmen at N8.5 million, lamenting that he has been totally ruined.

Other farms affected in the second attack on the area included Giza Farms that lost 86 cows and Glory Farms where the cattle rustlers went away with over 36 cows between August 18 and 21.

A staffer of Glory Farms while narrating his experience told Abuja Metro his conclusion is that that the thieves were annoyed that people who are not of Fulani origin are in the business of cattle rearing.

He accused that the Nigeria Police even refused to deploy their helicopter for area surveillance after the attacks, even after they were notified officially.

Abuja Metro learnt that when a group of the affected farmers brought a complaint at the Jikwoyi Police Station the police allegedly told them that the development was not of national security importance, and cannot deploy helicopter for aerial patrol.

One of the owners of the farms in the area said he tried on his own to hire a private chopper for aerial surveillance to search and rescue the cows but was asked to pay $29,000 (about N4,785,000) for the service. And he asked: “Where am I supposed to get that kind of money from?”

Abuja Metro investigations revealed that it has been the same tale of woes from people who have been experiencing similar attacks in farms in Gwagwalada, Kwali, Abaji and Bwari.

Nothing is on record to show that the office of the Secretary of the FCT Agriculture and Rural Development is doing anything to protect the interest of farms operators, they accused.

 Agriculture minister reacts

When asked what he was doing to address the problem since cattle rearing is part of agriculture, the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina ‎said: “If you see those cattle rustlers, you will notice they don’t look like Nigerians. The Fulani that we know in this country carry sticks.

They are not armed with riffles like the AK47. You have people coming from neighbouring countries in resource pressed areas that are very desperate, they come in here armed and operate. You know they give the Fulani a bad name. That is not the Fulani that we are used to. Let us not call them rustlers, they are robbers, they are rogues. So it requires intervention from security forces. That is why I have suggested in the meeting held in Kaduna on security that we need to have a way of tracking even those that are moving with animals. You just can’t move without people knowing who you are, your identity and so on because the bad guys make the good ones look bad.

So we have begun to have conversation about it and we must be dispassionate about this issue. The need to track people is critical, ability to track animals is critical because if we don’t track animals if everybody moves his animals to one area and there is no grazing facility there, the only place they will see is a farm and then they will go on the farm. At such time, the farmer and the pastoralist will start shooting at each other.

But if we manage it properly then we say we have national grazing management information system. We know the amount of grazing facility here, the kind of fodder that is there, how much carrying capacity it has, so we can direct you and say go to this area instead of just waking up in the morning and moving all over the place causing problems for others.

And people must understand as well that I don’t think you will find any Fulani man that will tell you that they want to make the Guinness book of record by walking the longest distance with their animals. What they are looking for is to have quality fodder. I want to assure that we are look at it at a very dispassionate structural way to find solution to what is obviously a pressing resource control issue.