How military drone killed over 37 civilians in Nasarawa, Benue –Gov Sule

The Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, speaks on the alleged drone bombing of the civilian population in Nasarawa State, in this interview with Channel TV Politics Today, monitored by Linus Aleke

We know that you have called for an investigation into the killing of herdsmen by military airstrikes, and the police have since commenced investigations, bring us to speed with the development in the state, what was the actual cause of this bomb blast?

Thanks for asking for some clarifications on what happened because a lot of information has been flying on social media and it is not exactly the way it was. What happened was that there was this group of Fulani whose cattle were arrested in Benue state and they went back to Benue and were able to collect back their cattle after the payment of 27 million Naira penalty for their cattle that engaged in open grazing in the state. We know that Benue state has an anti-open grazing law, where cattle that are seen roaming are arrested. So, after collecting the cattle in several trailers from Benue, they came to the border and as they were just dropping their cattle to come into Nasarawa State, at the border between Nasarawa and Benue, then there was a bomb blast that you mentioned, but it was more or less some kind of object. They said it was a drone that carried out the attack. It was a drone that bomb blasted them and several people and the cattle they collected vanished. It was a very sad situation that we had but it is something that will be fully investigated as you rightly pointed out.

Tell us what you know now about that tragic incident, was it an air strike or an accident?

Well, any time you have innocent people killed, it has to be an accident because I don’t think that any responsible human being will target innocent people in a situation like this to attack them. So, it is indeed an accident, the way it is going on. Now, the information we have received so far points to that, and that is why I have continued to have these different meetings, including the one I had today with the entire national officers of the Fulani. I had the meeting with them today, here in Lafia and I had over 200 Fulani leaders and the Miyetti Allah leadership. We had a lengthy meeting, where we discussed the remote and immediate cause of the incident all the people who were affected by this incident were all here at the government house and we had a fruitful discussion. From what we heard, there was an operation and during the operation, there was a drone that was sent out, following some bandits and that was exactly what happened. It was in the process of bombing the bandits that these innocent people were killed. In Nasarawa state as you know, we are beginning to see the return of some of those bandits who fled the state following military operations. Just recently, six school children were kidnapped by these returnee bandits and we were able to rescue two of them the remaining four are still in their hands around the border. What just happened is also, in the same Doma Local Government Area, where these six school children were kidnapped. So, the operation is been carried out to ensure that those bandits are kicked out of Nasarawa, and indeed other states. There is a major operation, I think in the entire North Central because I was speaking with my colleagues in Niger State when he said that there are also similar operations in Niger State where a drone was also sent after the bandits and in the case of Niger, those who were affected are likely the bandits themselves or people who were suspected. But here part of the people who died, we cannot say if bandits were amongst them or not. That is exactly the situation in Nasarawa state. But definitely, a lot of innocent people were killed.

Can you confirm if this drone is from the Nigerian Air Force, or perhaps the Nigerian military?

I have no idea, you know we have so many operations here, and that is why I kept saying operations. We have so many operations here, we have the Air Force Base, that is operating, we have the special forces in Doma that operate, we have the operation Whirl Stroke that is operating from Makurdi, we have so many of them so I don’t want to point a finger at any one of them because I am not sure what happened. That is exactly the position right now.

If I understood you clearly, you said that the operations were targeted at the bandits, but in the process, there was collateral damage

Most likely that was what happened.

Can you confirm to us the exact number of those that were killed in the incident?

It is very difficult, I heard you mentioning numbers earlier when you pegged the figure at 28 according to media reports but I did not want to argue with you on that. The reason is that we buried 37 people and that is what I can tell you for sure but my colleagues from Benue state also said that he has some burial yesterday in Benue all from the same incident. So, we would not be able to give you the exact figure because I can only tell you the figure of those we received in Doma LGA, and God was so kind we were able to bury them.

Have you been able to solve the puzzle of the identity of the victim of this bombing, are they from Nasarawa, Benue, or Niger?

Yes, as I said, they are Nasarawa people, they are Fulani who lives in Nasarawa state, and have their families here. One of the elderly men was the father of nine of the victims. Nine was just from one family, so, when he came in, I was able to talk to him, and I was able to sit with him for some time to condole him, while he was here in the government house. Everyone of them were from Nasarawa State.

The military has maintained a stone silence since the news of this tragic incident broke, have you engaged the military authority on this?

The situation with Nasarawa is always the critical one, in the sense that the Tiv people are identified as people from Benue and the Governor of Benue is of Tiv ethnic stock. So, there is always this misunderstanding that anytime there is offence from the Benue State government, Fulani people will take it out on the Tiv people who leave in Nasarawa state. In Nasarawa state, we have Tiv people who are indigenes of Nasarawa State, who live in four different local government areas of Obi, Doma, Keana, and Awe local government areas. These are border local government areas with Benue. That is why when a thing like this happens, the first thing that comes to my mind is reprisal. Because it has happened continuously. Every time it happens there is a reprisal attack, in both ways. If it is Fulani, they will attack the Tiv, who live in Nasarawa and if it is the Tiv, they will attack the Fulani who are in Nasarawa. But the first thing, I always do is to seek the assistance of the security agencies and the military. I allowed them to carry out their constitutional duties. I was in contact with the highest authority in the military already. My contact with them is more of asking for support to ensure that the whole area is safe to protect the other villages to ensure that there is no reprisal attack. All my effort so far had been geared towards stopping further attacks so that other people do not take it out on innocent people who are living in Nasarawa state because out of anger other people may do that. To be honest with you, I had not gone down to start asking, which of you in the military did the attack, what happened, and so on. I believe that there is a professional approach and they should be the ones to come out and say that and none of them so far has claimed responsibility. I am paying more attention to appealing to them to provide more security in the areas concerned.

Has there been any progress made by the military in flushing out these criminal elements, especially now that elections are fast approaching?

To say that we have not made any progress is to be unfair to the military and other security agencies. If you remember when we came into office in 2019, we came face to face with severe banditry, especially in the Toto LGA of the state. At the time, there was a group called Darussalam that were kicked out of Niger State that came to settle in Nasarawa in 2016. They became so comfortable that they now establish a relationship with Boko Haram. I had to go to the villa quickly to speak with Mr. President, and I even made the announcement then that we have these Boko Haram elements in Nasarawa state and there were joint operations. After the joint operations by all the military and other security agencies, especially the vigilante that knew the area. The vigilante led in some of the places to identify and show the military and the police the exact location where these criminal elements were hibernating. That was the time we had people like Bazanfare, who came in from Katsina to come and lead the group. They became so comfortable in Nasarawa, around Toto and Nasarawa LGAs. The areas were almost impossible to access, they operate freely early in the morning and evenings, and sometimes they even come out during the day to terrorize people. But after that operation, we even took custody of the families of those who were killed or those who fled the state. If you remember, I had close to 900 women and children that we finally relocated to other parts. So, we had a very successful event, and everywhere had been quiet. Just about a month ago, when we started getting information that some of them were returning to some of those local government areas. Since then, the military also has been up to date in trying to target them. It is just very sad and unfortunate that sometimes during these operations we come across this kind of collateral damage that we have at the moment. But to say that they had not made progress, I think will be unfair to them because we have made significant progress. That is why a lot of our people can go to a farm. That is why Nasarawa is a leading producer of so many crops in the country. They have made significant progress and I am forever appreciative of the effort of the security agencies and the Federal Government, especially the President for intervening.

As a leader, what in your opinion are the long-term and permanent solutions to this age-long farmer herders clashes in Nigeria?

One of the permanent solutions is the thing we are doing here in Nasarawa state. When I came into office in 2019, I embraced a programme that was developed by the Federal Government and some international communities, especially, the government of the Netherlands. As we said, it is any LTP, in other words, the National Life Stock Transformation Plan, and our government were asked to give a grazing reserve that was going to be converted to where all these herders were going to be located in the area. The school will be provided for them in the area so they could go to school. Then water, a borehole, a hospital, and other amenities were provided. We only have one in Nasarawa state. We embrace that programme and we have one already that is functional. But it is just too small for the number of herders that we have in Nasarawa state. Another disadvantage that we have, which is advantageous to the herders, is that what we are talking about is very attractive to every herder that is into open grazing. From the far north, they all come close to the River Benue, because of the kind of grass and weather they find there, which is wonderful for the cattle and that is the attraction for them. Any time they come to that area we run into this problem so, we receive more herders than the area can accommodate. We have cows that will run across the border and they are arrested by the Government of Benue and then we run into this kind of problem. So, the final solution like you asked, as far as I am concerned is this kind of programme -the National Life Stock Transformation Plan, you don’t have to call it that, you can call it another name but we have to make sure that we stop all these roaming around of cattle. This open grazing is not working, even for the Fulani. The type of feeding that the cows are having can only enable them to produce four or five litres of milk in a day because the cows are tired and the herders are tired too. It is a very difficult thing. I wish that Nasarawa State is so rich that we can provide tens of these grazing reserves. If we do that this problem will be history in Nasarawa State.