•Tor Tiv blasts Miyetti
The Tor Tiv, HRM Prof James Ayatse has alleged that the present crop of herdsmen in his domain are criminal herders.
This is contained in a release by the Press Secretary to the Tor Tiv, Freddie Adamgbe as response to the representative of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) over the killings in Benue State.
According to the release, Tor Tiv said, “What we have now are criminal herders carrying assorted rifles, killing our people, raping our women and our daughters, grazing on our land, destroying our crops, and even when we harvest and put it in our homes, they come and destroy our houses, bring out our harvest for their cows to eat.
“If you come here and tell us that they are few criminal elements that have joined the herders and they are spoiling the show for all of you, the model you need to first do is to drive away the mad people among you.
“Any other story you tell us without doing it is playing to the gallery. If you have mad men among you, deal with the mad men, you know them”.
The Tor Tiv said they knew the original herders growing up in their environment; “They will come only with a staff to guide the herds so that they will not destroy farms, that is the herders we know.
“In one of our meetings of the Northern traditional rulers some years ago, a traditional ruler rose and made a statement you made here today, and my heart jumped. He said you cannot change the culture of a people overnight. What culture are you talking about? Is it culture of killing? Is it the Nomadic culture of moving up and down? That culture did not have problems, that culture did not seek to take over our land, that culture did not say you should kill us, that culture did not seek to destroy our farm, which is our livelihood, that is not the culture we know.
“Any culture that is killing people, taking over their livelihood, destroying their properties does not give or require one second of notice, that culture must end immediately.
“If you come with herds, we will show you where the ground is fertile and the grass is green you will eat. But if you come right on our farm, people are busy working and you are killing them, you are destroying our livelihood, the whole year labour is destroyed, that is an alien culture that cannot be tolerated in our environment”.
The paramount ruler advised them to join hands and deal with the mad men, “Then we will accept you, we have always done that in decades past, where if a cow stray and destroy farm, they will come quickly, settle, pay compensation and move on.
“Now in my domain, in Kwande, they have taken over more than four wards and they are staying, in my domain in Gwer-west, almost all the 15 wards have been taken over and the people have ran to around Naka. There is kidnapping and road blockage every day. That is not a culture that we can accommodate in Benue State.
“So, MACBAN, deal with your internal issues. If you say they are mad men and you do not know them! You know them. They dress like you, they talk like you, they carry AK47 like you.
“You can not deceive us. If they are walking like you, dressing like you, talking like you, carrying guns like you, killing us like you, how can you say you are not part of them? So, first deal with the mad men among you and come and present yourself clean, we will accept you. We have always done it just that things have changed”.
