Plateau Natives, Fulbe Appeal For Adequate Compensation For Killings In North Central Geopolitical Zone

Yakubu Busari

The Plateau State chapter of Gam Allah Fulani Cattle Development Association of Nigeria, Alh. Garba Abdullahi Muhammad has appealed to the Senate ad-hoc committee on public hearing in the North Central geopolitical zone to revisit the cattle routes, which are now blocked, and grazing reserves that are taken over as hideouts for criminal elements for smooth banditry and kidnapping.

Speaking at the ongoing Senate ad-hoc committee on National security summit held in Jos in conjunction with the Plateau State government on 27th November, 2025.

Abddullahi reiterated that the plight of the herders in Nigeria was that most of the cattle routes are overtaken by farming activities, and grazing reserves are also used for hideouts for these criminals.

He urged the Federal government to provide them with a conducive modern place to prevent a breakdown of law and order because most of their youths are illiterate and they remain jobless and engage themselves in unwholesome practices.

According to him, we have been neglected by the government, including the international assistance coming for internally displaced people; the world has turned its back on us, even though we live in the same IDP camps, nobody reminds us of relief materials.

Garba Abdullahi lamented that they are not involved in internal security guards in villages, so it affects the problem of incessant attacks and displacement of the natives, with a high level of suspicion against the herders in Plateau State and the North Central geopolitical zone.

“All we are saying is that the abandoned cattle routes are now occupied by criminals using it for cattle rustling, so we employ the state and federal government to embark on a thorough investigation to expose those behind this dastardly act, he said.

He warned politicians against supplying weapons to the youth group for their selfish agenda, but called on the government to prevent the spread of small arms and weapons that are now in circulation.

Garba Abdullahi disclosed that everyone is a victim of the attack as the Fulani herders are also now living in camps spread across the states in Nigeria, so he charged the Senate to use their Plateau State as example to address the incessant attacks in Nigeria.

Also in the area of presentation at the senator ad-hoc committee, Bokkos Local Government Area committee, headed by Professor Steven Malo, he decried that all their communities had been occupied by the bandit groups and Fulani herders who are non-indigent.

According to him, villages linking Nasarawa, Mangu, Shendam are under siege no farming activities going on there because of land grabbing, kidnapping, and the raping of women.

Malo urged the government to investigate the burning of many churches in the North Central zone by an Islamic terrorist group, subjecting the natives to the present hardship in the country.

He demanded that all the Fulbe occupying illegal lands should be evacuated, praying the committee to deploy forest guards across the length and breadth of the country, particularly monitoring the affairs of the criminal element in Plateau, Benue, Nasarawa, Niger, Kogi, and Kwara states respectively.

Steven emphasized that adequate compensation for the affected families that lost their breadwinner, starting from Wase, Kanam, Plateau Central District, from 1998 to 2025 crisis.