Self-help assumed a total blocking of the Enugu – Otukpo highway at Gbokpo in Apa Local Government Council of Benue State for much of today (February 12th, 2024). A video sent to Intervention by an elder indicated the road remained closed at least from 8 am till early evening.
No way!
Intervention understands it was the youth’s own way of sending something like ‘IdomaLivesMatter’ message to the Federal Government over the battlefront that Agatu, Adoka and adjoining areas have become, ever since but particularly in the past one month between a militia of Fulani herders and locals.
Although there exists a Joint Taskforce over the area, that does not appear to have been an adequate response. A test of strength the previous week between hurriedly assembled local militia suffered casualties in the hands of the herders’ militia, leading to a tactical retreat.
Some sources are indicating over 500 killed in the latest round. No farming is possible any more as villages have been deserted, several internally displaced persons’ camps all over with women telling tales of rapse and sexual assault, particularly at Entepa, a key theatre of operation.
Intervention is told the road blocking will continue for a long time to come until something serious is done. Apart from the reality of a water space herders of Fulani stock are, perforce, interested in, it remains incomprehensible why the situation has assumed a cycle of violence which the Taskforce is obviously unable to contain. If it is for access to the year round water space, war cannot guarantee it for herders. If it is for Islamisation and/or diluting of local population as widely believed, what is the chance that herders’ militia can get and sustain a bridgehead from that location? No version of Strategic Studies will teach anybody otherwise. So, it remains unclear why Agatu/Adoka axis is a theatre of war.
People assume confidently they know, thereby precluding more serious analysis that may confirm the existing claims or disprove them and reveal new insights. With the disarray in the country, who will do such analysis?
