Two Fridays ago, 16 Northern travellers met with a gruesome fate when vigilantes and some irate youths intercepted their bus on the Uromi-Ubiaja road in Edo State and lynched them to death. They were mistaken for marauding killer Fulani herdsmen who had laid siege to the town, killing and maiming, leaving death and destruction in their wake.
This tragic incident, while deeply condemnable, must also be seen within the wider context of fear and trauma that many rural communities in Nigeria, especially in the Middle Belt and southern regions, have lived with for over a decade. The spectre of marauding Fulani herdsmen has become a terrifying reality — with a documented history of mass killings, village invasions, kidnappings, and farmland destruction.
From Agatu in Benue State, where over 300 villagers were massacred in 2016, to the persistent bloodshed in Southern Kaduna, Plateau, Taraba, and parts of Enugu and Ebonyi States, the pattern has remained chillingly consistent. Nomadic herdsmen, often armed with sophisticated weapons, have been accused of launching coordinated attacks on sleeping communities, burning homes, and displacing thousands.
In April 2018, 19 worshippers, including two Catholic priests, were killed in Benue by suspected herdsmen during an early morning mass. That same year, the Global Terrorism Index listed Fulani extremists as the fourth deadliest terror group in the world, following Boko Haram, ISIL, and al-Shabaab.
Communities have repeatedly cried out for urgent intervention, but government responses have been painfully slow, frustratingly inconsistent, or entirely absent—often with victims cruelly blamed for their own deaths. During the arduous eight-year tenure of herdsmen apologist Muhammadu Buhari, the bloodthirsty rampage of killer herdsmen escalated into a full-scale hunt for innocent lives, with the president appearing to justify or excuse their brutal campaign.
Countless families mourned in anguish. A generation of orphans was birthed in grief. Widows were made overnight. Entire towns were sacked and left desolate, their inhabitants scattered or slaughtered. The rampaging, bloodthirsty herdsmen moved with chilling impunity, emboldened by the deafening silence and disturbing indifference of those in power.
The failure of state security apparatus to protect lives has left communities with little faith in due process — creating the perfect storm for deadly reprisals such as what occurred in Uromi. Let’s not forget Sunday Jackson, a farmer sentenced to death for killing a Fulani herdsman, Ardo Bawuro, during a fight on his farmland about seven years ago.
While justice must be sought for the 16 lynched travellers, there must also be a national reckoning with the unchecked violence that birthed the climate of fear in which such tragic mistakes occur.
The state must not only arrest and prosecute perpetrators of mob justice, but also decisively dismantle the violent networks that have made “Fulani herdsmen” synonymous with death in the minds of many Nigerians. Without this, the cycle of fear, hate, and revenge will only spiral further out of control. President Bola Tinubu, over to you!
Akinleye Segun writes from Lagos and can be reached via email: Mypenspeaks@gmail.com
