By Emma Amaize

LAST year, a farmer at Anifekede in Ubulu-Uku kingdom,  in Aniocha South local government area of Delta State, Chiedu Ogbonna, was shot in his farm by a suspected Fulani herdsman for allegedly daring to ask him and his fellow herdsmen to stop destroying his farm crops with their cattle.

Chinedu, a native of Obolo-Afor, Nsukka , Enugu State, survived.  But a former Director of Personnel Management, , Isoko North Local Government Area, Mr. Benjamin Chegwe, was not that lucky; he gave up the ghost after he was shot, September 30,  2012, in his farm allegedly by rampaging herdsmen.

Alleged attacks  by Hausa Fulani herdsmen are  commonplace in all over Delta State. At Ogume in Ndokwa West Local Government Area, 10 youths were reportedly killed in a clash on a Sunday morning after villagers woke up to discover that some herdsmen led their cows to eat up their tubers of yam.

The herdsmen, allegedly armed with rifles, were said to have shot at the members of the community who confronted them. The Ogume Clan Development Association, Ndokwa raised concern over the security challenge allegedly posed in the area by herdsmen.

At Akwukwu-Igbo in Oshimili North Local Government area of the state, the fear of Hausa –Fulani cattle herdsmen, who are believed to lead their cattle from neighboring Otulu to graze, is the beginning of wisdom.

A community leader, Ogbuenyi Obi Afagwu, narrated to Sunday Vanguard how he escaped from a Fulani herdsman, who brought out his gun and threatened to shoot him if he ever came to talk to him about cattle destroying his  crops..

When the destruction of crops and harassment of farmers became unbearable for the people of Okpolo (Enwhe clan), the community’s Progressive Union President General, Elder Isaac Omeke, said they had to form a vigilante group.

The state government and the police have not folded their hands on the security challenge allegedly posed by the herdsmen over the years, even if the situation has not changed their disposition to members of the communities where their cattle graze.

Besides destruction of farm crops, some of the Fulani herdsmen are suspected to be involved in armed robbery.

After a meeting of the Delta State Security Council in Oghara, last year, Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Mr. Ovuozorie Macaulay, said government had directed  that any cattle rearer who allowed his cattle to destroy farm crops or  cause bodily harm to farmers would be arrested and sent away from the state.

Government also warned land owners, who rent their lands to Fulani rearers to graze their cattle, to stop or they would be punished. He also said Hausa-Fulani leaders in the respective communities in the state would be made to fish out herdsmen responsible for untoward actions to host communities.

The past few months has not been without skirmishes between herdsmen and villagers in Delta State, but following the increasing menace of cattle rearers in some parts of the country, an expanded State Security Council meeting, presided over by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, met recently in Warri to appraise the situation.

At the meeting, attended by principal officers of the House of Assembly, heads of security agencies in the state, traditional rulers, local government council chairmen and religious leaders, a high-powered security committee, headed by the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba, was constituted to checkmate the charging herdsmen Uduaghan , who spoke to newsmen after the meeting, raised the alarm over the influx of strange persons into the state.

He pointed out that while the state government was not averse to accommodating genuine strangers,  it would not fold its hands and allow the state to be over4run by people with criminal intentions. According to the governor, the taskforce would, among other things, control the movement of cattle into and within the state with a view to stopping any attempt by herdsmen to cause a breach of the peace.

He added that the taskforce would also move into suspected locations, identify persons inhabiting such places and where it is established that the people are illegal immigrants, the immigration chief in the state would ensure they were evacuated.

Uduaghan explained that the measure was not to completely stop cattle rearing in the state, noting, “They can come but their movement has to be controlled by the task force. If they are coming to stay peacefully, we will allow them to stay.”

The governor observed that the state has had peculiar security challenge between cattle rearers and farmers, but added that the situation, in recent times, had taken a new dimension with the influx of herdsmen carrying arms to terrorize farmers, snowballing into killing and raping of women.

He noted that the problem of cattle rearers was a national issue and that he was ready to work with the Federal Government, fellow governors  and traditional rulers from the North to find a lasting solution to the menace. “It is a challenge we are ready to face squarely,” he stressed.