Reverend Ezekiel Dachomo has alleged that armed herders are using claims of “reprisal” as a cover to repeatedly attack farming communities in Nigeria’s North-Central region.
The cleric, known for speaking against the killing of Christians in the Middle Belt, made the claim during an appearance on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Monday.
Dachomo said the attackers routinely describe their assaults as retaliation while disregarding the devastation they inflict on rural settlements. He noted that communities continue to endure severe hardship without any recognition of their suffering.
He stated:
“When you come out, you are taken under a cow, then they will say they are coming for reprisal. But they will never talk about the destruction that they have done in the village,” he said.
He also questioned the reasoning behind the violence, pointing to the scale of losses recorded in previous incidents.
“One hundred and fifty-one, what have they done? What reprisal is taking place? Is that reprisal?
So if the federal government will approve and justify this reprisal, then we have many ways of reprisal too,” he said.
Self-defence
Dachomo warned that farmers may begin to take defensive action if the attacks continue.
He noted: “When you destroy my crops, I have chemicals. Not that we don’t have it, we put it on our farm to avoid a crisis. When the attacks come, they eat, they die. Don’t let them blame us. It’s a reprisal. Since the Nigerian government approved reprisal,” he said.
The cleric also said he has told young people in affected areas “to prepare for self-defence.”
He narrated how he submitted a list of victims to a government minister after violence in Gamboru and criticised a presidential adviser who, according to him, justified earlier killings.
He continued: “She doesn’t know she was carrying the blood, the names, the skeletons of those that are now in the grave on her hand. She doesn’t know that they [herders] kill you, they nail you, they shake your blood, 501 people.
It was reprisal. And she was justifying it. That woman, a senior advisor to the president, I don’t blame her. It is an agenda given to her,” he claimed.
‘Compromise’
Dachomo further argued that military presence had heightened tensions and alleged that the country’s security system had been infiltrated.
He said: “Withdraw soldiers, you will see peace. Withdraw the general army, and you will see peace.
The security has been polluted with the absorption of the repented Boko Haram assisting. And they are the ones who are giving information. They are still with their brothers in the bush,” he said.