No proof Fulani herdsmen are foreigners –NIS

The Nigeria Immigration Service has said there is no evidence that the herdsmen wreaking havoc and killing farmers and villagers across the country are foreigners.

The NIS Public Relations Officer, Ekpedeme King, said the NIS does not profile people based on their ethnicity when coming into Nigeria.

He said, “There is no evidence that the herdsmen are foreigners and the immigration service doesn’t profile immigrants based on their ethnicity. So, the NIS cannot say whether the herdsmen are Nigerians or not because nobody has produced them for us to profile them.

“We are at the borders and we have not seen any herdsman coming into the country. We have our men at the borders and they are doing their job. So far, what we have heard is speculation that they are from foreign countries, but no one has profiled them to know their identities, but it is not impossible that they could be foreigners.”

He averred that it is the responsibility of port health officials to check immigrants with animals to certify the health of their cattle.

King said, “We don’t ask if they (immigrants) are herdsmen or not and we don’t see people coming in with cattle. We have not received reports of people coming in with cattle. When you see someone coming in with animals, we have relevant agencies to check the state of the animals. If you are importing or exporting animals, like in other countries, the port health officials are in charge of that.”

He, however, said the NIS lacked the capacity to man the 1,400 illegal routes in Nigeria.

King said, “There are over 1,400 illegal routes, but the border patrol guards cannot be posted to the illegal routes because they are illegal, you cannot post an official to go and work at a place that is declared illegal, those places are not recognised as border posts, but the border guards patrol the periphery of the borders and prevent illegal people from coming in.

“We have patrol bases, the guards patrol from one base to the other. So, what we do is that we patrol the border areas, the government approved border bases for us.”

However, the Federal Government has said that it will collaborate with the neighbouring countries to contain the needless violence by the rampaging Fulani herdsmen.

The government said it would consolidate on its existing cordial relationship with Niger Republic, Chad, and Cameroon to curb the influx of herdsmen and other violent elements into Nigeria and improve security around the nation’s borders.

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Bolaji Akinremi, said Nigeria has a working relationship with the neighbouring countries on regional security of lives and properties.

“Of course, we have a cordial relationship with our neighbours and a robust partnership on security and this issue (herdsmen attacks) is a security challenge which the partnership will take cognizance of,” Akinremi said.

Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Republic of Benin had on June 11, 2015 formed a military coalition to fight Boko Haram.

The force, which was established with a budget of $30m, comprises of 8,700 troops from the five countries.

Some Fulani herdsmen on Monday attacked a community in the Uzo-Uwani area of Enugu State and killed no fewer than 48 persons.

The herdsmen were said to have attacked the community despite an earlier intelligence report that the attackers were lurking around and the pledge by the police to prevent the attack.

The Acting Director, Defence Information, Brig.-Gen. Rabe Abubakar, confirmed the Federal Government’s intention to tackle the herdsmen rampage.

Abubakar told one of our correspondents on Thursday in Abuja that with the plans being put in place by the military, the threat posed by the herdsmen would be drastically reduced.

On the issue that some Boko Haram members escaping from the military bombardment in the North-East could be involved in the killings by herdsmen, the military spokesperson said such insurgents had always been apprehended in collaboration with the security agencies.

Abubakar said, “While one will not divorce it (herdsmen rampage) completely from the Boko Haram, the military and the security agencies will continue to synergise to arrest such people.”

He vowed that the military would do everything to contain the reprehensible killings by the herdsmen and ensure that those behind it are prosecuted.

Abubakar stressed that the issue of the security of lives and property was a responsibility of the Armed Forces, adding that  the security agencies would not condone such criminal conducts from the herdsmen and other criminal gangs.

There have been insinuations that the marauding herdsmen are aliens and not Nigerians. But Abubakar claimed that the herdsmen could be foreigners.

He explained that while the issue of people coming into the country to carry out the heinous acts could not be completely ruled out because of the nation’s porous borders, the relevant security agencies were doing their best.

Meanwhile, the National Emergency Management Agency on Friday said that residents of Ukpabi Nimbo village in Enugu State had deserted their community following Monday’s attack.

NEMA said its personnel had begun on-the-spot assessment of the destruction carried out in the community by the herdsmen.

A NEMA Senior Information Officer, Mr. Sani Datti, told one of our correspondents that the agency’s officials were deployed in the community immediately after the attack.

He said, “Our men are there. They went, they conducted assessment and visited the victims. The way we handle cases of this sort is that we conduct on-the-spot assessment in order to know what to report, in case there is the need for greater attention.

“Don’t forget that NEMA has a zonal office in Enugu and because of the proximity, we were able to mobilise to the location immediately. Most of the time, we have situations of that sort and we carry out on-the-spot assessment for immediate assistance.”

However, security experts on Friday spoke on the need by the Federal Government to muster the political will to tackle the recurring attacks by the Fulani herdsmen on farmers and their host communities.

A former Director of Procurement in the Defence Headquarters, Brig.-Gen. Ayodele Ojo (retd.), urged the Federal Government to unravel the cause of violence between the herdsmen and their host communities for lasting solution.

He said, “While removal or redeployment of the Enugu State Commissioner of Police will not bring solution to the violence in the state, what I think should be done is to find out why the security agencies failed to prevent the attack after receiving information that the herdsmen were lurking around.

“If it is established that there is any negligence on their part, then those responsible should be punished. The Federal Government also needs to unravel the root cause of the frequent clashes between the herdsmen and their host communities.”

But, a former Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, Mr. Abubakar Tsav, said it was too harsh to call for the removal of the Enugu State police boss because it had yet to be established that herdsmen were responsible for the killings.

He said, “If you listen or read the statement of the police in Enugu State, they said the people who came to attack the community were hoodlums, not herdsmen. And people were killed with machetes, not with guns.

“So, the police have yet to clarify whether it was Fulani herdsmen that carried out the killings or hoodlums. If the police were aware that the attack would happen, they knew that it was their responsibility to send security personnel to protect the area. The next thing is to investigate the incident before calling for necessary action.”

Like Ojo, Tsav asked the government to find out why the Fulani herdsmen suddenly find interest in killing their hosts with who they had been living peacefully in the past.

He said, “The issue is that the Fulani have lived peacefully with their hosts for many years in the past and there was no communal violence between them. The question to ask is why is the violence happening now? The best the Federal Government can do is hold an inquiry involving the whole country to find out why this is happening and proffers solution.

“But if you just say create ranches and prevent Fulani herdsmen from going about, this may not work because moving about has become part and parcel of their lives. The government should find out why this was not happening before and why it is happening now. It is when we know the causes of this problem that we can proffer solution to it.

“For now, if you send soldiers and the police to kill them, it will also not work because the Fulani people are united and assuming that one of them is killed and the rest organise a reprisal, what do you think will happen? The Fulani have the right to rear their cattle, but they have no right to destroy people’s farms and they have no right to kill anybody.”

The Secretary, Lagos State chapter of American Society of Industrial Security, Prof. Femi Adegbulu, said it was embarrassing that the herdsmen still struck despite an earlier report indicating that the attackers were around.

He, however, blamed the incident on what he described as the police weakness.

Adegbulu said, “The first question we should ask ourselves is that the herdsmen, who are now armed to the teeth, what is their strength vis-a-vis the police who are to prevent them from attacking?

“The police will always tell you that they are on top of the situation; they will never tell you their weaknesses. They will never tell anyone that the Fulani herdsmen possess more sophisticated arms than them. But when the crimes are being committed or the attacks are being carried out, you will not see any policeman at the scene to prevent them because they know that the herdsmen have more sophisticated weapons than they have.

“Are we saying that there were no police in Benue State when the herdsmen moved there to kill people? Are we saying that the police were not in Benue State when the herdsmen killed the locals? If the police were there when the herdsmen were perpetrating the attacks, it meant the police took cover because they knew they could not overpower the herdsmen. The time to stem this is now; otherwise I keep saying it that it will be difficult to contain them.”