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Jihadists Posing as State Actors to Grab Land from Christians in Nigeria: Report

An IDP camp in Nigeria's Benue state. Credit: Catholic Diocese of Makurdi Justice and Peace Commission

Some Nigerian State officials are working in cahoots with jihadist mercenaries to grab land from Christians in the West African country, researchers at the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) have established.

In their latest report published on Tuesday, July 18, the researchers express concern about what they describe as “indiscriminate purchases of lands in Eastern Nigeria” by proxies for jihadist Fulani herdsmen settlements and their Jihadist atrocities.

The purchases are done under the guise of government “development plans”, the researchers say.

Highlighting some of the most notorious jihadist entities wreaking havoc against innocent civilians in Nigeria, the researchers say, “The controversial land purchases have been secretly traced to the leaders of the MACABAN or Miyatti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria and the FUNAM or Fulani Nationality Movement.”

According to the researchers at Intersociety, the immediate former President Muhammadu Buhari’s government is also “strongly suspected” to be involved in these crooked deals. 

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The researchers who are behind the report detailing mass murders and displacements of Christians across various Nigerian States allege that the military and other security chiefs in the East are “strongly suspected” to be the enforcers of the Fulani land purchases and, many times, violent grabbing.

The purchases, the team of researchers led by Emeka Umeagbalasi say, are done using threats of blackmail, force, and invasion. 

Refusal by leaders of such communities to give up their ancestral lands ends up attracting false labeling or group criminalization including being labeled or tagged “rogue traditional rulers providing training grounds or using their palaces for “IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra) training camps,” they say.

They say that several Eastern communities have come under attack or invasion by the military and police operatives and their commanders using “missing Fulani cows” or “killing and abduction of Fulani cows” as a cover. 

Intersociety finds it baffling that authorities in Nigeria are placing utmost importance on the lives of Muslim cows than the lives and properties of defenseless Eastern populations or citizens. 

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They highlight cases of the communities in the Nigerian States of Abia, Imo, Enugu, and Anambra, among others, adding, “It must further be informed that most of the above-named communities have at several occasions received military threats or attacks or come under invasions and attacks by the Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen for their refusal to lease or release their lands to MACABAN and their Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen.”

Meanwhile, Intersociety has expressed the difficulties encountered while trying to locate official records showing the number of arrested, investigated, prosecuted, and sentenced Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen anywhere in the West African nation since 2015. 

According to the team of criminologists, lawyers, and security and peace studies experts, former President Buhari’s era of “Commander-in-Chief’s above the law license” on Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen was further found to have made armed militias thrive in Africa’s most populous nation.

The law, they said, had made it a common practice within the security establishments to conceal the identities of the Fulani Jihadists when caught in atrocious acts.

Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.