Nigeria: Funerals amid outrage over herders' violence

By Rafiu Ajakaye

LAGOS, Nigeria (AA) - North-central Nigeria on Thursday saw scores of purported victims of herders' attacks laid to rest amid national outrage over violence that has dragged on for years in the agrarian region.

"There were 73 corpses in all for the funeral," government spokesman Terver Akase told Anadolu Agency by phone, as thousands gathered for mourning rites.

Akase called the violence devastating, with at least 50,000 people now displaced from their homes in the Benue state following repeated attacks.

"Five displaced persons' camps have been open in Makurdi to cope with the situation. Soldiers who are now deployed in the state say three suspects have been arrested. The police inspector general has also relocated to Benue," he added.

The violence between the nomadic herders and farmers in parts of Nigeria, especially the Benue and Taraba states, has resulted in hundreds of deaths and mass displacement in the past few days.

The government faces growing calls to declare the herders terrorists and to outlaw open grazing across Nigeria, a step some states have already taken. President Muhammadu Buhari, himself a Fulani, a tribe known for nomadic animal rearing, faces accusations that he has not been tough on the menace of his kinsmen -- a claim the presidency has vehemently denied.

-'Pure criminality'

Presidential spokesman Femi Adesina said in a statement that such claims were "unkind," adding that over 750 people died in herder-farmer clashes under Buhari’s predecessor Goodluck Jonathan, a non-Fulani.

"This shows that the issue of herders attacking settlements, attacking farmers, attacking communities is pure criminality and it is something the government must deal with," he said.

"It is the duty of government to preserve the lives of the citizenry. It is the responsibility of government to maintain law and order, and this government is determined," he added.

On Wednesday, Nobel literature laureate Wole Soyinka berated the government for not doing enough to end the violence, saying the herders had declared war against Nigeria and were acting with impunity.

"Indeed the government is culpable, definitely guilty of 'looking the other way'. Indeed, it must be held complicit," he said in a statement.

He said the violence was being ignored by the Buhari administration the way the previous administration left the Boko Haram insurgency to fester.