After suspected herders attacked farming communities in Taraba State’s Bali Local Government Area, one person was hurt and sixty-two homes were destroyed.
Following a dispute over a source of water, Channels Television learned the attack.
Between the villages of Tor Bali and Atongo, a pond serves as the water’s source, and Fulani herders argue over it.
A woman went to the pond to get water after being confronted by a cow, who was trying to get her water, and the chairman of Bali Local Government Area, Aboki Dauda, who claimed peace was broken.
The herders allegedly beat her after that. Later, the incident caused the woman to raise an alarm, which sparked outcry from her neighborhood.
“Thank God that no life was lost,” the author writes, “This was terrible. You can see homes being destroyed, people being displaced, but it’s amazing that no one has died.”
The Fulani herders brought their cattle there to start the trouble, and a woman who went there confronted them for spoiling the water by asking their cattle to drink from the same place, he said.
Then, with their sticks, they attacked her, and she fell, cried, and called the husband and her neighbors to help, and from there, the conflict spread throughout both communities.
“I called the local government secretariat’s herders’ leaders with a brave move. We have identified them, and we have warned that they will be held accountable if they do so again. We have a problem with Fulani herders because they don’t listen to their parents.
Ezekiel Gboo, a farmer in Tor Baki village, narrowly avoided passing away, when he said: “We were working on our farms when we saw them come from different directions with sticks and machetes and we had to flee for our lives.”
I called our Tiv leader, who instructed me to leave the police station right away, while I was running, and I pulled out my phone. I was able to escape without going any further. When they struck me with sticks and cutlasses when I stopped, they pounced on me, and that is how they injured me. They were about 30 when they struck me.
Read more about the 13 killed and the burned-outs of gunmen’s targets in Plateau communities.
The Taraba State Government says it will not tolerate any peaceful resolutions, whether through farmer-herder conflicts or communal clashes.
When its delegation traveled to the affected area to offer food as a source of comfort and appealed for peaceful coexistence among feuding factions, the Taraba State Government made this statement.
Saviour Noku, the Taraba State Commissioner for Special Duties and Humanitarian Affairs, welcomed the delegation led by Zaki Gbaa, the Tiv community leader.
Let’s try to live peacefully with our neighbors because I know you’re a peaceful people and want us to take lessons from what has happened. Let’s give peace another chance.
“Be proactive, stop a crisis, and be proactive is always less expensive.
The phrase “what we have created is only an interim measure” is true. The commissioner said, “I am aware that we have more plans to make you comfortable and bring you back to your ancestral homes.”
Veronica Alhassan, a member of the delegation from the Taraba State House of Assembly, requested that they embrace tranquility and reject all forms of bitterness.
The delegation also made a visit to Bakundi Palace’s chief, asking the traditional ruler for his assistance.
