A week after clashes between Yoruba community and their Fulani neighbours over grazing rights and land ownership forced him to flee his village, Shuaibu Tirimisiyu and his family are still taking refuge in an almost empty room in Akesan, a community in Oyo town completely dependent on hand-outs from sympathisers.
When asked what he and the 15 members of his family have been surviving on since they were displaced, he replied, “Whatever is donated to us.”
Mr Tirimisiyu and other Yoruba families had travelled almost 50 kilometres from the three villages of Agbegun, Oniyanrin and Monde, that make up their community to find protection in Akesan following fear of retaliatory attacks from their Fulani neighbours.
Some members of the Fulani community, however, denied that they were planning to attack the Yoruba community explaining that those who fled were hiding from the law, after they raided the Fulani community and set their houses on fire.
Alfa Rahman, an Islamic leader in the Yoruba community, who fled to Jabata in Oyo town, lamented that the crisis in the community has rendered him unproductive.
“I go every day to farm and I am the Imam for the Yoruba community there, but I can’t go to the farm for now,” said Mr Rahman because, according to him, he is the main target of the Fulani.
But the Yoruba farmers and their families are not the only people bearing the brunt of the clashes. Though their Fulani neighbours can now graze their cattle unchallenged, most of them are forced to sleep outside under trees after their houses were burnt in the fracas.
Trouble over land
For ages, the Fulani and the Yoruba have lived together in Agbegun, Oniyanrin and Monde villages in Afijio local government area. They have, however, endured a frosty relationship, typical in Nigerian communities shared by herders and farmers due, largely, to disagreement over grazing rights and land ownership.
Investigation shows that the Fulani had settled in the community since 1996. At that time, they did not claim land ownership. Tirimisiyu said the Fulani were originally paying rent to his father before he died. He said due to the rent they were collecting from the Fulani settlers, his family endured endless disagreements with them mostly caused by the destruction of farms by their cattle. He said their endurance soon ran out and the Yoruba asked the Fulani to leave.
Land dispute within
Meanwhile, among the Yoruba, there was a dispute over the true owners of the land. Three families: the Tirimisiyu, Lahan and the Onimi of Imini, lay claim to the land. In 2017, the customary court at Imini ruled in favour of the Tirimisiyu family.
With the judgement, the family told the Fulani occupants to vacate the land they occupy. But unknown to them, the monarch of Onimi family, John Mobolaji, who died in 2016, had already sold the land to the Fulani. So, the Fulani refused to vacate the land.
“Ask them,” began Aliyu Usman, a Fulani leader, “If they took us to court. We were not a party to the case at the court; so, we were not ordered to leave the land.”
Report actually confirmed that the Fulani were not a party to the case at the customary court. The case was between Mr Tirimisiyu’s family and the Lahan family.
“Yes, but the court says the land belongs us,” argued Mr Rahman.
Frustrated by the refusal of the Fulani to vacate the land, the Yoruba approached a lawyer, asking him to help them drive a process of executing the customary court judgement. The Yoruba said apart from the customary court ruling, they also got an Ibadan high court judgement ordering the Fulani (to leave) after they approached the lawyer. Investigation, however, revealed that the claim was not true.
Their lawyer, Salawudeen Adeoye, said there was no high court judgement as the case was never instituted there. He said after he was approached for help last year, he only complained to the deputy registrar at the court in Ibadan, Oyo state police commissioner and the police officer in charge of legal matters in Ibadan.
He said having approached the police and the deputy registrar of the high court in November 2018, he placed notices that read: ‘Possession taken by the high court’ on the buildings.
Yet the Fulani stood their ground. They said they have a document proving that they purchased the land they occupy and some more areas, almost the size of each of the villages, from the Onimini, whose right to the property other Yoruba families, dispute.
Investigation further reveals a 2016 document containing land sale agreement between the Fulani and the Onimini.
Mr Usman who displayed the document insisted the land now belongs to the Fulani.
“They say Fulani cannot buy and have land here. Are Fulani not human beings?” he asked rhetorically.
Resort to self-help
At Monde, where the disputed land is situated, the Fulani community has been razed to the ground. Report indicated that the attack on the Fulani was carried out by their Yoruba neighbours.
On January 15, 2019 when the Fulani were not in their homes, leaving only two members including a teenager, Sodiq, behind, some Yoruba men under the guise of surveying the land, burnt the houses in the Fulani community. While Sodiq fled, his brother was not too lucky. He was cut with a machete in the neck by the attackers.
In separate interviews, Mr Tirimisyu and Mr Rahman said some members of their (Yoruba) families merely removed the roofs of the Fulani homes as a step to forcing them to vacate the land.
“It was without my knowledge,” said Mr Adeoye, the lawyer to the Yoruba, as he lamented the violent resort to self-help. He disclosed he had warned his clients against resorting to self-help pending the determination of an appeal of the earlier judgement on the land at the customary court of appeal in Ibadan.
Sodiq, who fled the attack, informed his kinsmen of the attack. The Fulani reported the incident to the police. But before the police’s arrival, the Fulani had mobilised more people, waylaid and attacked the returning Yoruba men.
Mr Usman denied the Yoruba were attacked. But some of his kinsmen who participated in the retaliatory attack, as well as a police source confirmed that the Yoruba were attacked.
When the police arrived, they arrested the Yoruba men who attacked the Fulani community and took them to Ibadan. Those who escaped with injuries were also later arrested while receiving treatment in a private clinic in nearby Ilora town.
The spokesperson of the police in the state, Adekunle Ajisebutu, said those arrested would be prosecuted.
He said at least one person was arrested while receiving treatment in the hospital.
But regardless of the police intervention, the Fulani clan are threatening more violence against the Yoruba, a situation which has forced the latter to flee from their homes.
Again, Mr Usman denied this. He said those who fled were merely scared of being picked up by the police.
Labourers from Benin Republic, like Baba Fasila and Ishola, who live in the community, also confirmed that the Yoruba families had fled for fear of being attacked by the Fulani, who according to the labourers, are on guard, looking for Yoruba families.
Several farmers said that the tension between them and Fulani herdsmen grows every dry season.
“They destroyed my cassava farm and even a Fulani could enter the farm to uproot cassava and peel for cattle to feed,” said a farmer, Lukman Odunerin at Akodudu village in Atiba local government area.
In response, some of the farmers who asked not to be mentioned admitted said that they sometimes poison water bodies to kill cows, to prevent their crop from being eaten and their farms trampled upon.
It is conflicts like these that caused the Yoruba indigenes of Agbagun, Monde and Oniyanrin to demand the Fulani vacate their land.
The Fulani herders who spoke however did not deny that their cattle destroy farms. They say it is inevitable. They, however, said they are prepared to pay compensation to the farmers whose farms are destroyed.
“We can’t live together without fighting,” said Usman. “We told them (Yoruba) when cows destroy a farm, they should report to us and we’ll compensate but they should not kill our cows in retaliation.”
Credit: Premium Times
Ikenna Okonkwo
Mon, Feb 25, 3:13 PM (17 hours ago)
to me
Salaries/pension arrears: Can Ortom assuage Benue workers?
With few days to the governorship elections all over the country, the question on the lips of many is whether Governor Samuel Ortom will have his way at the polls. Daniel Agbo examines the scenario in the light of unpaid salary and pension arrears.
Few weeks to the governorship election in the state, the major challenge which seems to be before Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state is how he can clear the outstanding salary arrears.
January 2018, the governor, however, began regular payment of salaries to the Benue workers.
This came after a long battle which set the workers against the governor threatening the cordial relationship he had with the civil servants which made them vote him in the 2015 election.
Most of the workers felt the governor was being unfair to them after they worked hard for his emergence as governor.
Although the governor has seven months of the arrears for the state civil servants and nine for local government when he began regular payment, the tension which hitherto was developing among the civil servants was doused down with the beginning of payment of salaries as at when due.
The beginning of consistent payment lightened the heart of the workers who felt that once again they will begin to enjoy regular payment after long time of uncertainty and hardship, especially as the elections are few days away.
Investigation by Blueprint, however, indicates that the regular payment of salaries was viewed by some as a last minute effort to save his re-election bid. This is coupled with the recent advocacy by the governor for the new N30, 000 minimum wage.
Though the state government still owes salary arrears, the governor always stood by the workers to advocate for the New Minimum Wage.
This to many was another strategy by the governor to remain afloat with the workers for his re-election bid.
The first civilian governor of the state, late Aper Aku, though regarded as the best governor the state has ever produced, the greatest challenge he ever had while he was seeking for a second term was his failure to pay workers (teachers) for nine months.
The immediate past governor, Gabriel Suswam, was denied the election into the Senate because he was unable to pay the four or three months salary arrears he was owing the workers.
Considering this trend, it was the opinion of most people that the effort by the governor to effect regular payment of salary the past thirteen months was a desperate move to warm himself into the heart of the workers
In 2017, the governor declared a state of emergency on the payment of salaries to workers and a committee headed by the deputy governor Engineer Benson Abounu, was set up to tackle the monster.
Despite several interventions which came in form of bailout, Paris Club refund and loans, the problem persisted. Economic activities in the state were at the lowest ebb because the economy is driven by the civil service.
It could be recalled that Ortom immediately after he resumed office in 2015, implemented the minimum wage to the teachers which were denied them by the past administration.
He also resumed immediate payment to staff of the state university technical college who were left five years without salary because of the industrial conflict they had with the Suswam government.
It would also be recalled that the Ortom administration had initially headed for the bond market to obtain a loan of N10billion to pay May and June (2015) salaries of the state workers. The governor also followed it up by accessing N28billion bailout funds from the federal government, which was used to pay the backlog of salary arrears to the tune of N12.5billion for state workers and N15.5 for local government workers.
He also received three tranches of Paris Club Refund to offset part of the arrears which his administration incurred as result of the biting economic recession the state was passing through.
But despite all these loans and refunds as well as the monthly allocation accruing to the state from the federation account and monies accruing from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), the state still seems to be grappling with payment of salaries arrears.
Many people have expressed their reservation on Gov Ortom’s candidacy basically because the governor has failed to clear the backlog of the arrears he currently owes the workers.
To worsen the situation, the opposition has also cashed in using the issue to score a political point.
But the governor had, at several fora, lamented his inability to attend to workers’ welfare due to paucity of funds occasioned by the huge wage bill.
In a recent interview with newsmen in Makurdi, while reacting accusation by the APC during the parts presidential rally in Makurdi, Ortom explained some of the issues surrounding his inability to clear the backlog of the salaries.
He however reacted by saying the outstanding arrears was as a result of the huge wage bill the state is carrying.
“But we also appreciate the fact that today in Nigeria, despite the low IGR that comes into the state, Benue state is number 3 in terms of payment of high salary.
“In the north, we have 19 states and Benue state is the highest. In fact, it may interest you to know that some states in the north, their salary is quarter of what Benue state is paying.
“In the whole country, Benue state is number three in terms of payment of high amount of salary.
“While Lagos is first, Rivers is second and then Benue state. But if you compare our IGR to these two states, you can see the difference, so it’s a big challenge.
“I have tried to be transparent in handling the state funds and I challenge anyone who have facts that I embezzle the state funds to come out publicly with it.
“As I am talking to you, many state still grapple with the issue of payment of salaries. This is a national issue and affected many other states too.
“The workers are part of my government and their leaders sit with us to share the allocation we have on a monthly basis; so nothing is hidden from them.
The governor also explained that the issue of payment of salary had been the biggest challenge of this government because the state economy was driven by the civil service.
“No much of commercial activities are going on here, no industries, so there is no engagement of the private sector providing commercial activities, so it has become very challenging. It’s been quite tasking, but we appreciate God for how far we have gone.”
He assured that once he gets enough money, he will pay the arrears.
He dismissed the allegations that his administration misapplied monies meant for the state and that was why he could not offset the arrears.
“Nobody can tell you anywhere that I have misappropriated money. All those lies from the opposition APC and on social media among others can never be justified.”
Despite the governor’s explanation the question on most people mind is whether the civil servants will still vote for the governor in his second term bid.
However, the special adviser to Ortom on Labour Matters, Chief Ode Enyi, declared that whether the salary arrears of civil servants were paid or not, workers in the state would still vote Ortom in the forthcoming election.
He, however, said the governor would clear all the arrears before the election.
