‘Army/Herdsmen Collusion’: Taraba Govt Replies Military, Indicts Buhari, Osinbajo

The government of Taraba State has reacted to Nigerian Defence Ministry’s claim that it never received any distress call from the state in the light of Fulani herdsmen killings.

The WHISTLER recalls that Defence Minister, Mansur Dan-Ali’s spokesperson, Col. Tukur Gusau, had admitted that the ministry had been receiving reports of soldiers’ misconducts from troubled states in the country except for Taraba.

Col. Gusau made the statement after Rtd. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma alleged recently that some Nigerian soldiers were colluding with Fulani herdsmen to kill innocent citizens.

The minister’s spokesperson had said, “We have been having such reports about the misconduct of soldiers in the theatre of operation,” but noted that “We have not received anything yet from Taraba State.”

But reacting, the Taraba State Government, in a statement by Mr Bala Abu, the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Darius Ishaku on Media and Publicity, accused some military investigators of invading the state in February 2016 to grill one Dr Shekarau Masa-Ibi over undisclosed allegations.

Abu said the military investigators “had no courtesy to inform the state governor” on what the investigation was all about.

“The Taraba State Government protested this obvious act of disrespect… in a letter to the Chief of Army Staff, dated February 23, 2016,” he added.

Governor Ishaku’s spokesperson equally claimed that state government wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari on January 26, 2016, over security threats in the state.

“In that letter signed by Governor Ishaku himself, he lamented the devastating effects of internal conflicts involving the Fulani and Tiv, which led to the sacking of 200 settlements in the Gassol, Bali, Ibi, Donga and Gashaka local government areas by herdsmen.

“The governor informed the presidency about the concerns raised by some traditional rulers in the state concerning the influx of Fulani militia and about the attacks on their communities. Letters of complaints from the traditional rulers whose communities suffered from these attacks were also attached and forwarded to the presidency… Copies of this letter were sent to the National Security Adviser, Chief of Staff to the President and the Inspector-General of Police,” said Abu.

The spokesperson further indicted Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

He noted that the state government had previously on July 5, 2017, wrote Osinbajo, informing him of “the precarious security situation as contained in a letter written by contractors handling the Kashimbilla Dam project and called for high-level intervention. He called on the army, the Navy and Air Force to establish permanent security bases in the area. This was again ignored.

“For example, the Fulani militia attacked communities in Takum and Ussa on May 6, 2017. The crisis led to the abandonment of 224 cattle belonging to the Fulani herdsmen.

“The Taraba State Government took possession of these cows and handed them over to the Commanding Officer for safe keeping until the owners return to collect. This was meant to be a ploy to get the perpetrators of the crisis arrested. Sadly, the Commanding Officer released the cows without arresting anybody.

“There was another case when the commanding officer marched soldiers to attack and brutalise communities in Kashimbilla. Property of the people was damaged while many were injured.

“The letter said the Commanding Officer was partial and discriminatory in the discharge of his duties and requested that he should be transferred. The advice was ignored.

“On January 30, this year, The governor wrote another letter to the Vice President to again complain about the attitude of the Commanding Officer of 93 Battalion, Takum, Lt. Col. Ibrahim Gambari, whose soldiers always looked the other way when the herdsmen militia come to kill.

“The governor said the security situation in the country and in Taraba State demanded that every security officer cooperate and take directives from the chief security officer of the state which is the governor, but lamented that this has not been the case with the commanding officer.

“The letter listed instances of security challenges in which the military failed to live up to expectations.

“The letter also alerted the military authorities to a planned massive movement of Fulani and their cows into Takum LGA, adding that motive was to provoke the people and precipitate crisis. The military in-charge of security in the area did nothing.

“The widely publicised report on social media and which was investigated and confirmed to the effect that a chopper dropped arms in a village near Wukari was downplayed by the security agencies.

“Despite efforts by the Taraba State Government to get the military to act, they never did. Since then, the arms and ammunition brought into the state have been used against the people in various communities in the state by the herdsmen.

“The present Operation Ayem Akpatuma in the state has also been discriminatory. While cutlasses and knives have been taken away from the people, the herdsmen have been left with AK-47 rifles.

“Through these various acts of deliberate mischief on the part of the military thousands of people have been killed and a lot more may be killed unless the military turns a new leaf,” the statement by Taraba state government read.