World Watch Monitor on March 22 reported
the continued attack “with impunity” by Fulani herdsmen on unprotected
Christian communities in Benue State. According to an eye-witness account, the
latest round of attacks started “when the herdsmen forcefully entered our
village to graze on farmland, but were resisted by our youths. They left – only
to mobilise and storm our village in their numbers, shooting sporadically and
chasing everyone from their houses.”
That was on Friday 10th March
at Mkgovur village. Two days later, the
herdsmen shifted to the village of Tombo-Mbalagh killing at least 8 people. Yet two days
after, in the early hours of Tuesday, 14th March, the herdsmen were
again at Wanune, headquarters of Tarka LGA.
The Inspector General of Police was quoted as confirming that as at 20th
March, the death toll from this new wave of attacks stood at 60.
Frustrated at government’s apparent
helplessness to intervene, Christians at Wanune used the corpses of their kiths
and kins killed in the attack to block the highway to the state capital. Unable
to bear the spectre any longer, the state governor, Dr Samuel Ortom, averred
that “there is limit to which he can ask the people of the state to be
patient.” He thereafter back-pedalled from his unpopular efforts to persuade
the locals to carve grazing land for the herdsmen, and rather ordered the
herdsmen to leave town.
It is however not clear how long this
will last, or where exactly the “expelled” herdsmen relocated to. But the observation that they were
accompanied out of the affected areas by security forces, and the deafening
silence about the crimes committed, don’t leave much to be cheerful about. Besides, recent reports (9th
April) from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development confirm that
plans are already at advanced stages to demarcate cattle routes across the entire
country to facilitate easy movement of cattle.
According to Alhaji Mahmud Bello, National Coordinator, Grazing Stock
Routes, "We are going to provide
6,000 kilometers of cattle routes across the country; we are going to open the
primary routes first, while the state and local governments are expected to
launch the secondary routes.”
A Cow Conundrum
While Muslim Fulani herdsmen are busy
killing innocent folks in Nigeria, in retaliation (according to Governor El Rufai), for their beloved cows previously killed
by aggrieved farmers whose farms the cattle had mauled; elsewhere in India, Muslims
are being mauled by Hindu extremists for their herding cows for table! In that
country, hundreds of vigilantes have taken it upon themselves to accost
livestock trucks on the highways in search of cows suspected of being taken out
for slaughter. In the last 2 years, at
least 10 Muslims have been killed while several others were seriously wounded
in this manner. In the Hindi belief, the
cow is a sacred animal to be simply reverenced and worshipped. Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi (like
his counterparts in Nigeria) periodically issues statements condemning the
attacks, it is widely believed that the extremists are emboldened and inspired
by his own far-rights Hindu proclivities.
For instance, his recent appointment of a die-hard Hindu priest to be in
charge of the state with the largest meat industry is akin to having an El
Rufai supervise religious activities in Kaduna. (see https://www.yahoo.com/news/muslim-man-dies-attack-cow-vigilantes-india-064223541.html)
Yet for all their dread of eating cow-meat,
Hindus actually believe they are permitted to eat every other thing under the
sun. In a recent report, CNN correspondent Reza Aslan, as part of the CNN
series “Believers,” featured a Hindu priest from the Aghori sect who defecated right
on camera and proceeded to eat it, affirming his faith in the cleanness of all
things for food. Aslan also joined the
priest in eating a piece of human brain and drinking from a human skull that
had been scavenged from the city dumps. (http://rollingout.com/2017/03/06/outrage-as-cnn-host-eats-human-flesh-for-special-on-hinduism/)
No comments:
Post a Comment