Igbo youths threaten Fulani herdsmen - 'Leave our land now or else...'

Following the massacre of no fewer than 40 people of Nimbo community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area of Enugu by Fulani herdsmen last Monday, Igbo youths under the aegis of Ohaneze Youth Council (OYC) have given the herdsmen three days to leave Igbo land or they will be forced out.

The Igbo youths gave the herdsmen till Monday to vacate all Igboland saying enough is enough even as it was gathered that the attack by the herdsmen has forced nursing mothers, widows, children and bedridden patients from the affected communities into exile.


 An Igbo traditional ruler, Igwe Rowland Odegbo and Champion newspaper publisher, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu also condemned the massacre and tasked President Muhammadu Buhari to bring the perpetrators to justice.

 Rising from an emergency meeting held in Enugu on Thursday, the Igbo youths in their communique noted that the herdsmen “are off-shoots of Boko Haram and must not be allowed any breeding ground in Igbo land.

Any herdsman who fails to quit South East by Monday will have himself to blame”.

The communique was signed by the National Vice President of the group, Mazi Obinna Achuonye and the Chairmen of OYC in seven Igbo- speaking states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Delta, Imo and Rivers.

According to the communique, “never again will Igbo youths fold their arms and watch our people being massacred by blood-sucking terrorists under the guise of herdsmen.

Urgent times need drastic measure. We warn all violent Fulani herdsmen to vacate our farmland, our backyards, our territories and boundaries on or before Monday next week.

 “Even though Ohanaeze Ndigbo will meet over the weekend to discuss this menace, Igbo youths will not wait until our people are massacred again before we take action. “If after Monday and the herdsmen are still around, we will direct Igbo vigilante groups set up by OYC in all the 95 Local Government Areas in South East to force them out”.

Continuing OYC said it had also uncovered plots through its intelligence unit that Ebonyi State has been marked as the next target of the rampaging herdsmen. “We have uncovered plots that their next target is Ebonyi State.
 They are coming from Taraba State to attack Ebonyi. We want the Governor of Ebonyi State and all the security agents in the state to be at alert”, OYC alerted.

 OYC claimed that Igbo youths were already collaborating with Ijaw youths and Middle Belt youths on how to defend their people as the Federal Government under Buhari has failed to protect them.

“Ijaw youths, and Middle Belt progressives are already waiting for the expiration of the deadline on Monday. Fulani herdsmen have pushed us to the wall, time to take action is now or never”, it warned.

Residents of the community who fled their homes as a result of the attack and now taking refuge at petrol stations, churches, motor parks, hospitals, army barracks and uncompleted buildings have also recounted their ordeals.

One of the displaced persons, John Ayogu of Nimbo communityrevealed that his family survives at the mercy of good Samaritans who donate food, water and fairly used clothes. “We sleep at any available space at night and roam the town in the day time for food to eat, mostly for the teenagers who were forced out of school by the barbaric attack and killings in our community.

 People have been helpful to the residents of Nimbo, some people took some of us to their residential homes to take refuge, and many others buy food items and water for us.

We fled our community without food and cloth.

The number of death was too much for one community to bear. Our children were forced out of school for a good number of days now; we don’t know when it will be safe for us to go back to ours farms.

We are predominantly farmers but the herdsmen could not allow us settle in our farms as they rape women and young girls. We no longer allow our younger girls to go to the farms for fear of being defiled by Fulani herdsmen” Utazi Chikodili of Nimbo in tears at Royal Cross hospital said, ‘’Fulani herdsmen have finished our people, turned indigenes of Nimbo to beggers.

We wander about everyday looking for food and water to stay alive with the little ones who could do nothing but to cry when they are hungry. We sleep at this hospital every day and night, people do come here to give us food and water, and we take our bath at midnight because of space.

 Ajougwu Chisom (15) an SS 2 student at Community Secondary School, Nimbo and Ugwoke Regina (10) in primary six, said, ‘’we went to buy food items with the little money people gave to us. We are staying with our sister and our parents but we want to go back to school”

The traditional ruler of Nteje in Oyi local government area of Anambra State, Igwe Rowland Odegbo has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to set up a panel of inquiry to look into the remote and immediate causes of the activities of Fulani herdsmen who have been killing people in various parts of the country in recent times.

 Speaking in an interview, Igwe Odegbo, who is a prominent member of Anambra State Council of Traditional Rulers, said the panel of inquiry should consist of security operatives, leaders of thought and traditional rulers. He described as unfortunate a situation whereby herdsmen swoop on communities and slaughter people and wondered “why people should be killed because of cows”

 He said: “President Buhari is a Fulani man and his silence on this matter is not sending any good signal. He was elected to protect the lives of all Nigerians irrespective of their tribe and he should not encourage a section of the country to threaten the lives of other Nigerians. “Grazing areas should only be established in the North for the people who do the business of rearing cows.

They should not come down to the south to avoid conflict with communities who are mainly farmers.”