Anxiety in Southwest as armed herdsmen return to major roads
The lack of resolve among Southwest governors to implement anti-open grazing laws has encouraged resurgence of cattle economy on highways and streets in the region, Seye Olumide (Southwest Bureau Chief), Ayodele Afolabi (Ado Ekiti), and Adewale Momoh (Akure) report.
The country is still at a crossroad, as conflict between armed herdsmen and farmers has continued to flourish without any hope of ending soon.
It is one challenge that the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari, could not resolve throughout his tenure. Meanwhile, it has pitted the North against the South, just as it has also aggravated ethnocentric sensibilities in the country.
Data obtained from Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) showed that for the first half of 2018, over 1,300 people died in skirmishes between farmers and herders.
Nigeria also lost no fewer than 8,343 persons to the conflict between 2005 and 2021, while the figures between then and now are yet to be captured.
Save the Children International (SCI), in a recent report that captured January and June 2023, claimed that armed herdsmen killed over 128 farmers and 37 kidnapped.
Many lives were also lost as cases of kidnapping and other heinous crimes in the South escalated and were traced to the activities of the armed herdsmen.
The Guardian checks revealed that this development made regional agitators such as Sunday Adeyemo (a.k.a Sunday Igboho) and Professor Seth Akintoye, as well as Middle Belt groups and others from different parts of the nation, to demand for regional independence.
The agitators had insisted that pastoral farmers from the North could not continue to lord themselves over others because of their influence in government.
The ACLED report states that Benue State witnessed the most violent attacks, closely followed by Plateau, Kaduna, Taraba and Nasarawa in that order.
The report, which covered 2005 to mid-2021, put the number of killings in Benue at 2,539 from 303 attacks, while Plateau, Kaduna, Taraba and Nasarawa lost 2,138, 1,188, 755, and 521 lives in 279, 160, 111 and 93 attacks respectively.
The Southwest is also affected especially Ondo, Ogun, Osun, Oyo and Osun states. Due to the cosmopolitan nature of Lagos, not many skirmishes were recorded in the Centre of Excellence.
While Ondo is not prominent in the ACLED report, the attack on the farm of a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Oba Olu Falae, in September 2015, highlighted the herders’ incursions into farmlands in the state.
The controversial murder of Dr Fatai Aborode, in Igangan, Oyo State in 2020, who was allegedly killed by armed herdsmen, and not robbers as claimed by the police, was part of the incidents that led to the Anti Open Grazing Laws.
Also in April 2021, there was tension recorded in the Koka community in Obokun Local Council of Osun State when some gunmen, alleged to be Fulani herdsmen, invaded the neighbourhood at night.
Similar scenarios were also reported in Ogun, especially in Sagamu, Ijebu Ode and parts of Yewa, where farmlands were damaged and lives lost.
Ekiti was not left out and former Governors Kayode Fayemi and Ayo Fayose, never rested on their oars to address the issue. Fayose, particularly, led the local hunters in certain instances to enforce the Anti Open Grazing Law, which appeared to have been in practice in Ekiti before 2021.
Fayemi, in one of his public engagements, narrated how the immediate past National Security Adviser (NSA) frustrated the efforts of his government to acquire drones to fight criminality and excesses of the armed herdsmen in Ekiti.
The gruesome murder of Mrs Funke Olakunrin, daughter of the leader of Yoruba socio-political organisation, Pa Rueben Fasoranti, triggered reactions. While some claimed armed herdsmen carried out the murder, others claimed otherwise.
The incidences compelled most Southwest Houses of Assembly to pass the Anti Open Grazing Bill into law, which Governors, Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Seyi Makinde (Oyo) and erstwhile Governors Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti) and Gboyega Oyetola (Osun), eventually signed into law.
In the law, the governors also set up alternative security measures called Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN) codenamed Operation Amotekun, to checkmate activities of the criminal herders.
Governor Akeredolu, chairman Southern Governors Forum and governor of Ondo State, led the campaign.
Following the steps taken relative peace returned to the zone, but in recent times the armed herdsmen have returned to the roads and are going about open grazing as usual.
They are visible along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway on the Oyo, Ogun, and Lagos ends of the road. They are also at Lagos-Ijebu Ode Road, just as they freely graze their cattle along Ikorodu-Ogijo-Mosinmi-Shagamu Road. Some are along the Lagos-Epe axis. They are also visible in several parts of Osun and Ekiti states.
Residents of Ibadan, Oyo State, watched helplessly recently when some herdsmen brought their cattle to graze between Veterinary and Mokola Bus Stop along Mokola, Ojo, Moniya Roads in Ibadan, in day light.
Residents of Badagry in Lagos are equally lamenting the gradual re-appearance of herdsmen just as citizens of Ogijo, Shagamu Local Government in Ogun State are complaining about how the herders now strayed into their lands and compounds.
Warning against the resurgence before it escalated, Director General, Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission, Seye Oyeleye, said there is no doubt about the fact that armed herdsmen have returned and continued with their activities in defiance of the Anti Open Grazing Laws.
He pointed at how armed herdsmen currently operate in Ogbomoso, Iseyin, and other places against the tenets of the laws.
Oyeleye said there are no major highways across the Southwest and you won’t see herdsmen and their cattle. “They are now moving into communities against the laws.”
He said the law is not being implemented, as it should, “across Yorubaland and very soon it won’t be a surprise if we start hearing of farmers, herders crisis again.”
On his part, Chairman Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG), Wale Oshun, said the headers are now everywhere grazing their cattle on the roads, highways and major streets.
He claimed to have seen the herdsmen in some parts of Ijebu land and on Lagos Ijebu Ode Road while he was travelling.
But Oshun said implementing the Anti Open Grazing Laws is one aspect of the problem.
“The Southwest governors must also be tasked to adopt serious agricultural policies, which must include provisions for modern livestock. Until this is done, I doubt if our governors and or politicians would have the political will to fully implement the laws.
“I will also suggest the meeting of all commissioners for agriculture and agriculture experts, across the Southwest region, to fashion how best we can address some certain issues facing us.”
A ranking member of the Lagos House of Assembly, David Sentonji, said more responsibilities lie on the governors to implement the laws. “The herdsmen and their cattle are gradually returning to engage in open grazing, as against the content of those laws.”
Setonji, however, defended the governors, saying, there is less the governors can do to implement the laws as long as Nigeria operates this central structure of policing, where the Commissioners of Police take directives from the Inspector General of Police and not the governor.
The Lagos lawmaker, who spoke in his capacity as a legislator and a ranking member of the Assembly, also advocated for state police, saying, if the menace of herdsmen/farmers crisis must stop, state police must exist.
FARMERS in Ekiti, under the auspices of the All Farmers Association (AFAN), also expressed misgivings about the implementation of the open grazing laws.
They told The Guardian that herdsmen still destroy their farmlands without consequences.
Amotekun
Although it was learnt that Amotekun operatives made some arrests occasionally, not much was heard after such arrests in the recent past.
When contacted, the Commandant in Ekiti, Brigadier General Joe Komolafe (rtd), said his men have been on top of the situation by resolving the constant clashes between the herdsmen and the farmers.
“We use a stick and carrot approach. If you bring a report and we get the suspected herders arrested, we will invite you and we will follow you to the farm, whatever damages we see, would be valued and the suspect will be made to pay or be reported to the police for prosecution.
“If we arrest cows and nobody comes forward to claim it, we will send the cows to the Ministry of Agriculture. If we arrest under-aged herders and nobody came to identify them, we would send them to the police because the law establishing us did not give us prosecutorial powers.”
A former Speaker of the Ekiti Assembly, Gboyega Aribisogan, said: “Just like every other law, the operators have not been up and doing. I believe that the implementation of the law can still be improved upon.”
But not less that 40 cows have been seized since the law was enacted and about five prosecutions in Ekiti State.
The Commandant of Amotekun in Oyo State, Col. Olayinka Olayanju (rtd), said the state has enjoyed relative peace and that over a 100 cattle had been impounded since the Corps was established.
He said people should understand that the law does not say herdsmen should be chased away from the various states. “They are also involved in economic activities and they are Nigerians, who can reside anywhere in Nigeria as long as they conform to the laws and the norms of the society where they found themselves.”
Olayanju said Amotekunin Oyo State adopted an alternative dispute resolution mechanism, which has yielded results.
He said over 150 cattle have been arrested since 2021 and several herders have been compelled to pay fines up to the tune of millions for various offences.
“For instance we used to have issues like farmers, herders crisis at Ijaye farm, but that is no more. Go to Okeho, Oyo, Ibarapa, Iseyin, Iwajowa, Ado-Awaye and others. The herders know that once they damage any farm and or property they will pay,” he said.
He called for the review of the laws to empower Amotekun to prosecute wanted herders and or farmers. He suggested the need to improve the welfare ofAmotekun Corps members.
Similarly, farmers in Osun State said herdsmen are still moving freely and destroying their farmlands and produce.
The Chairman of Women Association of Farmers in Osun State, Adetunji Bolanle said: “I have relocated my farmland from where it is prone to invasion by herders. Most of our people have done the same thing despite the law banning open grazing in the state.
“We have raised several cases and nothing was done. You can speak with some of my members to know their grouses.”
But the Amotekun Corps Commander in Osun, Brigadier General Bashir Adewinbi (rtd), said the law has been well implemented in Osun, except for some minor cases.
He said Amotekun adopted the alternative dispute resolution mechanism, which he said has helped tremendously.
According to him, “We are implementing the law but with some modifications so that it will not lead to chaos. We are using dialogue and negotiation to resolve most cases. We have resolved over 100 cases.”
The Commander of Amotekun Corps in Ondo State and the Chairman of the Council of Amotekun Commanders in the South West, Akogun Adetunji Adeleye, said the law has proven to be a pivotal step forward in curbing the persistent challenges posed by herder-farmer clashes.
According to Adeleye, who is also the Special Adviser on Security to Governor Akeredolu, the law has significantly contributed to reducing conflicts and ensuring the safety of communities.
He said no fewer than 850 persons, who flouted the law, had been prosecuted, with more than 100 judgments secured.
He said petitions from farmers against herders invading and destroying farmlands had been enormously reduced.
He said most times, the majority of the herders arrested are in some way involved in kidnapping. “So, it is actually very difficult to completely separate them because, in most cases, they use cows to block the road and to hibernate.
Adeleye stated that, “Our major constraints have been those of equipment and funding. Most of the time in the forest, especially those we drove out of the forestry reserves, they were heavily armed, to the extent that they attacked us most of the time with sophisticated weapons. But we thank the military, police, civil defence, and DSS for coming in handy to assist us.”
He added that the outfit would have done much better had we been able to match the criminals with the same kind of sophisticated weapon.
“That being said, we also do not have enough funding to buy equipment. Right now, we rely on DSS for our surveillance and tracking, and we rely on other agencies for a lot of things.”
He added: “The crime rate in Ondo nosedived from about 90 percent to 10 percent. Taking the Anti-Open Grazing issue for instance, at the inception ofAmotekun Corps, we had close to 100,000 petitions in a span of two years, but in the last year we haven’t had up to 1,000, which means the complaints of farmers have really reduced.”
On his part, Olugbenga Obaweya, chairman of the Ondo State Agricultural Commodities Association (OSACA), emphasised that there have been some improvements since the signing of the law; however, the problem of herdsmen incursions, particularly in remote parts of the state, persists.
SOURCE:Guardian
