27 die in Adamawa herdsmen, farmers’ clash

Fulani Herdsmen

The Adamawa State Police Command said 27 persons were killed in an overnight clash between farmers and Fulani herdsmen in Safere and Kodomti villages in Numan Local Government Area of Adamawa State on Monday.

The incident, which left scores dead,  mostly women and children preceded Tuesday’s  dawn suicide attack that rocked a mosque in Mubi, killing 50 persons with several others wounded.

Though the police confirmed the herdsmen farmers’ clash on Tuesday, it did not give casualty figure.

But the Police spokesman Othman Abubakar, a Superintendent of Police, while responding to inquiries, about the clash, said it was a reprisal carried out by farmers against the  Fulani community in the area.

“Twenty-seven persons lost their lives in the attacks. The police first information report showed it is a reprisal against the Fulani by some Bachama farmers, “ he said.

However, the Adamawa State Police Commissioner, Moses Jitibo, who spoke through, its spokesman said the police were on top of the crisis.

Nine persons, according to eyewitnesses accounts are reportedly missing in the two affected villages, while the charred remains of victims, mostly women and children have been deposited at the Numan General Hospital, where other survivors are also receiving treatment.

It was gathered that Fulani herdsmen allegedly killed one farmer on his farm while two other women were raped.

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday ordered a military crackdown on bandits operating in rural communities in Zamfara State.

The presidential order followed fresh attacks on some communities in Shinkafi and Maradun Local Government Areas of the state.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, disclosed this in a statement in Abuja.

To enable the army to carry out this new mandate, Shehu said the President had approved the request of the Minister of Defence, Brig.Gen. Mansur Dan Ali (retd.), for the stationing of a full battalion of Special Forces in Zamfara State, and the operationalisation of the newly-established 8 Division of the Nigerian Army in Sokoto in the new Order of Battle.

The presidential spokesman said the President had also approved the movement of the 1 Brigade of the Nigerian Army from Sokoto to Gusau upon the take-off of the 8 Division.

The statement read in part, “To tackle the desperate actions of Boko Haram terrorists in the North-East, through the use of mostly female, underage girls as suicide bombers, President Buhari has equally approved the setting up of an intelligence fusion centre in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, for the purpose of gathering and sharing intelligence among the security agencies in the country.”