The researchers who are behind the report detailing mass murders and displacements of Christians across various Nigerian States allege that the military and other security chiefs in the East are “strongly suspected” to be the enforcers of the Fulani land purchases and, many times, violent grabbing.
The purchases, the team of researchers led by Emeka Umeagbalasi say, are done using threats of blackmail, force, and invasion.
Refusal by leaders of such communities to give up their ancestral lands ends up attracting false labeling or group criminalization including being labeled or tagged “rogue traditional rulers providing training grounds or using their palaces for “IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra) training camps,” they say.
They say that several Eastern communities have come under attack or invasion by the military and police operatives and their commanders using “missing Fulani cows” or “killing and abduction of Fulani cows” as a cover.
Intersociety finds it baffling that authorities in Nigeria are placing utmost importance on the lives of Muslim cows than the lives and properties of defenseless Eastern populations or citizens.
They highlight cases of the communities in the Nigerian States of Abia, Imo, Enugu, and Anambra, among others, adding, “It must further be informed that most of the above-named communities have at several occasions received military threats or attacks or come under invasions and attacks by the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen for their refusal to lease or release their lands to MACABAN and their Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen.”
Meanwhile, Intersociety has expressed the difficulties encountered while trying to locate official records showing the number of arrested, investigated, prosecuted, and sentenced Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen anywhere in the West African nation since 2015.
According to the team of criminologists, lawyers, and security and peace studies experts, former President Buhari’s era of “Commander-in-Chief’s above the law license” on Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen was further found to have made armed militias thrive in Africa’s most populous nation.
The law, they said, had made it a common practice within the security establishments to conceal the identities of the Fulani Jihadists when caught in atrocious acts.
Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.
