FRONTLINE COMMUNITIES OF TERRORIST ATTACKS AND LAND-GRABBING IN PLATEAU STATE
RE: THE POSITION OF MIYETTI ALLAH CATTLE BREEDERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (MACBAN), PLATEAU STATE CHAPTER, ON INCESSANT VIOLENT ATTACKS AGAINST THE FULANI IN THE STATE
We, the Frontline Communities of Terrorist Attacks, the bleeding heartlands of Barkin Ladi, Bassa, Bokkos, Mangu, and Riyom Local Government Areas of Plateau state, from the Middle Belt region of Nigeria, speak not from hearsay but from the ashes of our burnt homes, the unmarked graves of our fathers and mothers, the trampled farms of our children’s future.
We are the living witnesses to decades of a carefully orchestrated genocide on our land and people. Our hills, once green, now echo with the silence of villages emptied by fire and bullets. Our streams, once clear, now run red. It has come to our attention that the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Plateau State chapter, in its advertorial of 28th July 2025 (Daily Trust, page 31 and The Nation Newspaper) and signed by one Alhaji Ibrahim Yusuf, its chairman, has once again unleashed its usual cocktail of distorted history, selective amnesia, and blackmail.
We initially thought to give their hollow propaganda the dignified silence it deserved, but for the sake of innocent readers who may not be abreast with the basic realities of the situation in our communities in particular and the state in general, we break our silence to set the records straight.
MACBAN’s statement is a bundle of falsehoods wrapped in arrogance, a deliberate attempt to paint themselves as victims and the true victims as aggressors. Their piece is nothing but smoke without fire, words without truth, and noise without meaning. It reeks of what our elders call “ƙarya ba ta da ƙafa, amma idan aka ɗora ta a kan gaskiya, sai ta yi tafiya” (a lie has no legs, but when placed on truth, it can travel far). Today, we pull that truth out from under their lie.
MACBAN – THE INTELLECTUAL WING OF PROPAGANDA
Let it be known without fear of contradiction: MACBAN has never been neutral in the campaign against our people. Since the early 2000s, they have acted as the intellectual wing and chief apologist for Fulani.
Without fear of contradiction, it must be stated that certain pastoralist associations in Nigeria have, over the years, failed to demonstrate neutrality in the violent conflicts that have ravaged our communities. Since the early 2000s, their public posture has often appeared more as advocacy for those accused of perpetrating kidnappings, killings, sexual violence, arson, and the destruction of farmlands than as genuine efforts to promote peace.
In 2010, following one of the most horrific massacres in recent history, at Dogonahawa in the outskirts of Jos, the nation and the world were stunned by comments from their leadership that seemed to justify the atrocity, a moment that exposed the moral gulf between such rhetoric and the pursuit of justice. Ever since, their statements and actions have tended to inflame tensions rather than heal them.
Rather than serving purely as guardians of livestock and livelihoods, their words and attitudes have too often positioned them as actors in the theatre of conflict, a role that does nothing to advance peace, security, or national unity.
A CALCULATED LAND GRAB MASQUERADING AS INDIGENESHIP
In their recent statement, the Fulani lobby has moved from demanding indigeneship to outright claiming it. This is a lie, one that insults history, law, and common sense. The Constitution of Nigeria defines who is an indigene, citizen, or resident. Nowhere does it confer indigeneship by purchase, conquest, or deceit. The blood that soaks our soil today is part of a much older story. In 1804, the jihad of Usman Dan Fodio swept through Hausaland, displacing native rulers and implanting Fulani emirates. The Plateau resisted this conquest fiercely, culminating in the historic Naraguta battle of 1873, where our forebears stopped Fulani expansion at the edge of the Plateau Province. History answers clearly that they were not, and they are not indigenes. Our hills remained untouched until the British colonial conquest opened the gates for tin mining. Only then, under the safety of foreign rule, did Fulani migrants “sneak” into Plateau, long after Yoruba, Igbo, Urhobo, and Niger Delta peoples had settled here.
Today, descendants of those latecomers are attempting to erase that history, using propaganda instead of muskets. Since that defeat, history records no Fulani indigene status on the Plateau, until the present generation of revisionists decided to rewrite our story. We say it loud: A person may buy land, but he cannot buy ancestry. Indigeneship is rooted in traditional ownership and ancestral heritage.
CITIZENSHIP, NOT SUPERIORITY
On the matter of citizenship rights, we state without hesitation or ambiguity that the Fulani in Plateau State enjoy no superior or higher rights or privileges beyond those provided to all Nigerians under the Constitution of the Federal Republic. The rights and privileges enshrined in our Constitution are equal, sacrosanct, and non-discriminatory, guaranteed to every citizen irrespective of ethnic origin, religion, or any other consideration. Therefore, the Fulani in Plateau State have no greater standing before the law than the Yoruba, Igbo, Urhobo, Tiv, Bwatiye, or any other citizen residing in the state. Any attempt to flaunt, claim, or impose special privileges above and beyond what the law grants all citizens is nothing but a fleeting illusion, a figment of the imagination with no legal or moral basis. Indeed, if there is any distinction to be made at all, it is that other non-indigenous residents of Plateau State, who live peacefully, engage in honest enterprise, and contribute meaningfully to the state’s growth, are far more valuable partners in development. Peaceful coexistence and lawful conduct are the true hallmarks of citizenship worth honouring.
THE GENOCIDE IN NUMBERS – 2025 SNAPSHOT
The atrocities are not abstract; they are counted in corpses and ashes. From January to August 24, 2025 alone:
Mangu Local Government Area: From January to August, 2025, Number of persons killed: 102, injured persons 56, Number of houses burnt: 120, Number of farmlands destroyed: 150.
Bassa Local Government Area: From January to August, 2025, Number of persons killed: 120, injured persons 76, Number of houses burnt: 150, Number of farmlands destroyed: 200.
Riyom Local Government Area: From January to August, 2025 Number of persons killed: 130, injured persons 82, Number of houses burnt: 59, Number of farmlands destroyed: 189.
Barkin-Ladi Local Government Area: From January to August, 2025, Number of persons killed: 130, injured persons 48, Number of houses burnt:52 Number of farmlands destroyed: 190
Jos South Local Government Area: From January to August, 2025 Number of persons killed: 20, injured persons 50, Number of houses burnt: 50, Number of farmlands destroyed: 170
Bokkos Local Government Area: From January to August, 2025, Number of persons killed: 189, injured persons 50, Number of houses burnt: 89, Number of farmlands destroyed: 230.
These figures are only the tip of the iceberg. Across six LGAs, entire villages have been erased, farmlands turned into grazing grounds for armed invaders, and communities uprooted into IDP camps.
THE “FARMERS-HERDERS CLASH” LIE
We reject, in totality, the term “farmers-herders clash.” There is no clash here. There is one-sided, coordinated, night-time massacres executed with military precision. Plateau’s 56 indigenous nationalities live in peace with one another. Calling it a “clash” is like calling an armed robbery “a disagreement over property.”
ON GOVERNOR CALEB MUTFWANG AND MACBAN’S CROCODILE TEARS
MACBAN’s attempt to blackmail our governor for “ignoring” them during condolence visits is laughable. No sane person wishes to be attacked just to receive a governor’s sympathy. The governor visits mourning communities. If MACBAN truly has “victims,” let them show their graves, release their names, and open their burial grounds to public scrutiny. But they cannot because their “victims” exist only in the fertile fields of propaganda. In fact, it is on record that the state government has not asked for the withdrawal of the military from flashpoints of attacks.
WHEN THE GUARD BECOMES A SUSPECT
The MACBAN could not have resisted the golden opportunity in their recent press statement to attempt blackmailing the Plateau State Governor over alleged degrading remarks about security agents.
This alleged conversation, supposedly made during the Governor’s visit to Bindi/Jebu, has already been discredited by many reputable individuals and groups who have categorically exonerated Governor Caleb Mutfwang of any such utterances. We were the ones, the victims of the attacks, alongside other credible eyewitnesses, and reinforced by the contradictory statements of the Commander of Sector 6 of Operation Safe Haven, under whose watch the attacked community fell, who demanded the replacement of the military with the Mobile Police. The consensus was clear: the commander failed in the discharge of his constitutional duty to protect the lives and property of the villagers. Equally troubling are allegations that some security personnel collaborated with the terrorists. In one instance, the youth leader of Bindi/Jebu (now deceased) was allegedly shot dead by a soldier, according to eyewitnesses. We are convinced that the genocide on the Plateau persists largely because of the Federal Government’s reluctance to take decisive action to end the decades of bloodshed. On their part, the uniformed men have not shown reasonable commitment to protection of the indigenous population. Examples of such nonchalance are legion:
1. Advance Warnings Ignored: Every major attack on our villages is preceded by warning signals and intelligence information, which are routinely forwarded to security agents beforehand. Yet, the attacks still occur.
2. Checkpoint Proximity as a Death Trap: Communities with security checkpoints in their vicinity have often been attacked. In such moments of crisis, security agents vanish from their duty posts, only to reappear when the carnage is over.
3. 2018 Gashish Massacre: In July 2018, just before Gashish district was overrun in a weekend of bloodshed, security personnel inexplicably withdrawn from the area. They only returned on Sunday evening after the attackers had left a trail of death and destruction.
4. 2012 Gashish Burial Attack: During the mass burial of over 50 victims killed the day before, armed men launched another attack on the mourners. This cowardly assault claimed the lives of Senator Gyang Dantong, a sitting Senator of the Federal Republic, representing Plateau North, and Hon. James Gyang Fulani, Majority Leader of the Plateau State House of Assembly. Security agents on duty quietly melted away, giving the terrorists free rein.
5. 2017 Nkiedonwro School Massacre: In Irigwe Chiefdom, Bassa LGA, security personnel ordered villagers to take refuge in the community’s primary school for “better protection.” Many obeyed—only to meet their death. Witnesses say the security made a call, after which terrorists emerged from nowhere and executed the attack, killing 25 people in cold blood. These patterns are not isolated incidents, they are a grim, recurring script. The lives of Plateau’s indigenous communities have been treated as expendable, while the very institutions tasked with our protection either fail us through negligence or betray us through active collusion. The government must take the bull by the horns and dismantle the machinery of genocide or the Plateau will bleed until it is empty. The law permits self-defense. If the state cannot protect us, we will protect ourselves not in vengeance, but in survival. A man whose house is on fire does not wait for the rain; he fetches water.
THE GUN MAKING FALSEHOOD
The claim that our people are gun manufacturers is nothing short of a malicious falsehood. If we truly possessed the capacity to produce such weapons for self-defense, we would not be suffering the staggering human losses we face today. Those parading sophisticated firearms may not necessarily be the manufacturers, yet the devastating impact of their possession remains the same. This dangerous and false narrative, twisting victims into aggressors has been deliberately propagated by people embedded within the federal government and its coercive institutions, forming part of the greater National Lie. It is a calculated campaign to mask the truth and shield the perpetrators. We reject these distortions with every fibre of our being. We will continue to stand firmly on the truth: we are victims of an orchestrated terrorists against the Plateau, and we will never cease to demand recognition of our plight and justice for our people.
LEGAL GROUNDING: OUR RIGHT TO LIVE AND DEFEND OURSELVES
The Nigerian Constitution (1999, as amended) guarantees the right to life in Section 33. It also recognizes the right to self-defense under Section 14(2)(b), which declares that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. International law, through Article 51 of the UN Charter, affirms the inherent right of self-defense when attacked. This right is not theoretical. It is practical, moral, and urgent. As our elders say, “A man whose roof is on fire does not wait for rain, he fetches water.” We have been patient. We have reported attacks. We have buried our dead in silence. But patience is not the same as surrender. If the Federal Government cannot or will not protect us, we will protect ourselves, not in vengeance, but to ensure our children are not slaughtered in their sleep.
ON IDPS AND THE FIRST LADY’S KIND GESTURE
We heartily acknowledge the kind-hearted gesture of the First Lady of the Federal Republic, Her Excellency Senator Oluremi Tinubu, who, in the spirit of true motherhood, opened her hands of compassion and made generous cash donations for the rehabilitation of displaced persons in IDP camps. This noble act, like water meant to quench the thirst of the weary, was clearly intended for genuine victims of displacement, those who have lost homes, farms, and loved ones to the storm of violence. However, from our ground truth and meticulous checks across Plateau State, there is not a single Fulani displaced person in any of the recognized IDP camps. What MACBAN has paraded as “data” is nothing more than a castle built in the air—pure fiction garnished with lies. In plain language, it is daylight hallucination. As our elders say, “When there is no bushmeat in the pot, you cannot call the soup banga soup.” If there are no Fulani in the camps, what exactly will sharing the First Lady’s donation to them amount to? Certainly not justice, and certainly not charity. It would be like pouring water into a basket. The First Lady’s generosity is too precious to be misapplied. Let it reach the hands it was meant for, those whose tears and scars tell the true story of displacement.
THE RALLYING CALL FROM THE FRONTLINES TO THE NATION
To the people of Plateau, the time for blurred vision is over. We must stand shoulder to shoulder, as our forefathers did in Naraguta, to defend the land of our birth. To Nigerians, do not be deceived by propaganda. Today it is Plateau. Tomorrow it may be your own ancestral home. To the government, history will judge those who had the power to stop genocide and chose instead to look the other way. We therefore make bold to declare that No land is vacant. No heritage is for sale. No people will be erased. As the Hausa proverb warns, “Idan kifi zai mutu, ya fara rubewa ne daga kai” (If a fish will die, it starts rotting from the head). The leadership must act now, decisively, justly, and without fear, before the rot consumes the whole nation.
CONCLUSION
What we have stated is only a fraction of injustice against our people and most of it occurred long before Governor Mutfwang took office. Only a heart steeped in malice would twist the truth to blame him. The Nigerian security agents can crush these terrorists in days if they choose. Until then, with trust broken and our blood spilled daily, we are left with one lawful, unshakable choice: SELF-DEFENSE, not in vengeance, but in survival. We are convinced that in the end, light will shine over darkness and the truth shall prevail over falsehood, Plateau will shine again.
Signed:
1. Attakar Nation: Rev. Zephaniah Nehemiah
2. Irigwe Nation:Amb.Danjuma Dickson Auta
3. Mwaghavul Nation:Deacon Bulus Dabit
4. Berom Nation: Da. Gyang Dudu Dalyop
5. Mr. Joshua AMOLE, President; KUDA
6. Hon. Michael YILKES; President, MCDA
7. Prof. Stephen MALLO; President, RCDA
8. Hon. Zakka AKOS, Secretary General; RCDA
