Ezekiel Dachomo, the reverend, has accused armed herders of using “reprisal” claims to justify repeated attacks on farming communities in the North-Central of Nigeria.
The cleric, who has spoken out against killing Christians in the Middle Belt, made the claim during a Monday interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief program.
Dachomo claimed that the attackers frequently refer to their raids as reprisals for the destruction done to rural communities.
He claimed that communities continue to suffer significant losses despite being unaware of their ordeal.
“When you come out, you are taken under a cow,” the cows will announce that they are coming for retribution. But he claimed, “They will never talk about the destruction that they have caused in the village.”
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He questioned the justification for the violence, citing the number of casualties from previous atrocities.
What have they done, one hundred and fifty-one? What kind of retaliation is occurring? That’s retaliation, right?
So, he said, “We have many ways of reprisal as well if the federal government will approve and justify this reprisal.”
Self-defence
Farmers could use their own defensive strategies if attacks continue, according to Dachomo.
I have chemicals when you destroy my crops. We put it on our farm to prevent a crisis, not that we don’t have it. They eat and pass away when the attacks occur. Don’t let them hold us accountable. It is retaliation. He claimed that the Nigerian government approved reprisals.
The cleric claimed that he had instructed young people in the affected communities to “prepare for self-defence.”
After the violence in Gamboru, Dachomo recounted giving a government minister a list of the victims’ names. He criticized a presidential adviser, who he claimed had justified earlier assassinations.
She doesn’t realize that she was carrying on her hand the names, skeletons, and blood of those who are now interred. She is unaware that 501 people, including [herders], kill you, nail you, and shake your blood.
“It was retaliation,” he said. She was also defending it. I have no sympathy for the woman who is the president’s senior advisor. He claimed that she has been given an agenda.
‘Compromise’
Dachomo claimed that the security structure had been compromised and that military deployment had worsened local tensions.
You will see peace if you withdraw your soldiers. You’ll find peace if you withdraw the general army.
