Kidnapping: Why Pastoral life is declining along a popular highway
Background It is early August and the Snake charmer begins to chant. A crowd gathers drawn by his poetry. It is amazing that a crowd can form here to catch fun, for the people face challenges from armed bandits as well as kidnappers. His trade suggests that the reign of kidnappers will soon end, […]
Background
It is early August and the Snake charmer begins to chant. A crowd gathers drawn by his poetry. It is amazing that a crowd can form here to catch fun, for the people face challenges from armed bandits as well as kidnappers. His trade suggests that the reign of kidnappers will soon end, for he has tamed a snake which could otherwise have been harmful. The snake now has economic value for the charmer, who also trades in cures for snake bites and other items, so too can the kidnapper or rustler be reformed or an end brought to his activities. This is the SCC Junction Jere, Kaduna State, where there is a Sunday market, and people from communities both far and near, gather there as they have for many years. The charmer dances and speaks close to a box which lies at his feet. He rises and utters a warning and points, when he notices this reporter taking his picture.
The need to interview nomads affected by kidnapping and cattle rustling along the highway, led me to the market that Sunday afternoon, and the market lies in territory frequented by kidnappers and rustlers. This vast territory is divided by the Abuja-Kaduna highway along which can be found many forests and enclaves which a kidnapper or cattle rustler could use to advantage. This is a wealthy road and it is richer than the pastoral folk and many other groups who live on both sides of it. N1.58bn was spent on emergency repairs along the road earlier this year.The tarred inanimate form is rich, and the humans who move about, live and breathe by it, are poor or are becoming poorer by the day. This is also a story of a rich road and poor pastoralists. Many of the nomads have migrated to distant places such as Zamfara, Kwara and Oyo states as a fallout of frequent kidnappings, and rustling of cattle which has impoverished the group. One source adds ‘between Jere and Rijana there were 250 Fulani camps at one time. Today, there are only 50 left. They have all gone.’
Dr.Ibrahim Mohammed, the Assistant Secretary General, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) comments on Fulani settlement in the area “With the crises that happened in the southern part of Kaduna state some years ago, a greater percentage of Fulani migrated to this area, and they populated places like Tafa, Kagarko, Katari, Rijana etc. They are in thousands and we are talking of millions of cattle. But now that this is happening,they have decided to migrate to other areas.” Dr. Mohammed says “As I am talking to you now, about 80% of the entire nomadic settlements have migrated to neighbouring states, like Kogi and even up to Oyo State. Some of them are still migrating to Katsina and Zamfara states. The percentage is high to the extent that any Fulani man that you see along the highway will not be a settled Fulani. He is a migrating Fulani who is there because he is plying a stock route that passes through that area.” He adds that many nomads are avoiding the highway and contiguous portions of it, owing to the notoriety of the area. Mohammed Dauji, a farmer, also sheds light on the changes that have come upon the pastoralists “Kidnapping has destroyed our people’s lives for they have lost their wealth and they have migrated. Out of one hundred, 80% have migrated from here to Lokoja, Ilorin and even Nasarawa State.” Mohammed Shiga who works with the National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE) agrees that a lot has changed in the lives of the pastoralists in the area.
This is the state of affairs in many of the communities that lie alongside the 165 km long Abuja-Kaduna expressway. But many nomads have had their herds stolen, or they have had to dispose of same to settle huge ransoms presented by kidnappers. From time to time, the kidnappers ask a nomad to pay money so that he or members of his family won’t be kidnapped. This is a sort of protection fee. To guard against this eventuality, he makes a payment and poverty begins to grow among the nomads, for they have to sell their cows to raise the monies demanded of them. It is also seen that in a family of nomads an individual could be kidnapped several times over. It is a continuing cycle. But cattle rustling has had impact on communities along the highway. A document provided by the National Commission for Nomadic Education(NCNE) indicates that cattle rustling has affected the economic stability of the resident communities along the highway, and it has pushed many Fulani youths to engage in crimes. The document shows that livestock rearing has dropped to an abysmal level, while people no longer go to their farms. It draws attention to developments around the Nomadic Education Training Centre (NETC) where adult learners dropped from 126 to 12 within the year 2016-2017. Also, school enrolment dropped from 158 to 28 pupils, due to migration to Oyo, Ogbomoso, Igbeti and Ilorin, in addition to mass withdrawal of pupils from nomadic primary schools.
Over N23m paid as ransoms
Apart from Datti Adamu who fled from his captors and therefore never paid any ransom, there is a long list of those who paid huge sums to the kidnappers, and these victims live along both sides of the highway. There is the sad story of a nomad whose two wives were kidnapped, and all his cattle stolen shortly after. At the end he became hypertensive and he passed on. There are no safety nets to support nomads who have had their cattle rustled or whose cattle have perished as a fallout of disease. Daily Trust is told of Alhaji Idi who lives in Isa near Jere, and was kidnapped last week. He was released only when his family sold some of their cows to raise the N1m ransom. Ahamad Adamu, a herder who narrates the story, adds “If government does not intervene, next year all of us will leave here because the kidnappers are making life tough for all of us.” Idris Abubakar had to raise N800,000 which was the ransom paid to release a relative of his who was kidnapped at Kasiri near Jere. The list is endless.Mohammadu Chibi, a herder, lives at Bishini. He paid the sum of N650,000 when his two wives were kidnapped. On top of this and to compound the problem, 320 of his cows were recently rustled. But Ardo Makama Ibrahim Mohammed tells Daily Trust that 10 persons were kidnapped at Katari recently, and a ransom of N10m had to be paid before they were released. Mohammed Dauji, a farmer, speaks of a nomad whose 2 wives were kidnapped, and the sum of N1.2m was paid before they were released. Buba Dai of Gadan Makaman Mamman, paid a huge sum as ransom when members of his family were abducted. This happened on four occasions. On the first occasion he paid N450,000. N660,000 was paid to release the second and third kidnapped persons, while N330,000 was paid during the final abduction, and these payments were all made this year.
Sardauna Alhassan of Pole Wire, Kachia paid well over N4m as ransom between late last year and early this year. Musa Adamu of the Gurara dam area paid N2.5 m in ransoms. Yahaya Musa had to give out N350,000 so that kidnappers wont harass him. But later his son was kidnapped and he had to cough out N2m to get him back. Adamu Jirgi of Janjala was kidnapped, and he had to pay N500,000 to his abductors. Ardo Bawa Idris who lives at Koron Tsohuwa narrates “The kidnappers contacted me and asked me to pay N2m, so that I won’t be kidnapped. I was only able to give them N250,00 and they left me alone.” Isa Shehu of Katari adds that he unknowingly entertained kidnappers one evening at his camp, only for them to return the next day to kidnap his brother, and he had to pay N1m before he was released. Herds are being depleted through regular sales, for this is the only way monies can be raised to settle the ransom demands, and the nomads are becoming poorer and poorer and the population of both cows and herders along the highway has shrunk. Many are forced to migrate to more favourable locations both within and outside the country. Over 6,422 cattle have been rustled in a mass of communities lying between Jere and Katari in the first few months of this year. Among these there is the dazzling figure of 1,100 cattle grabbed from Alhaji Gambo of Katari in a single night. These statistics are based on interviews with 37 nomads in the area last weekend.