Reverend Ezekiel Dachomo has accused armed herders of using “reprisal” claims to justify repeated attacks on farming communities across Nigeria’s North-Central region.
The cleric, who has been vocal against killings of Christians in the Middle Belt, made the allegation during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief programme on Monday.
Dachomo said the attackers often describe their raids as retaliation while ignoring the destruction inflicted on rural villages.
He argued that communities continue to suffer heavy losses without any acknowledgement of their ordeal.
“When you come out, you are taken under a cow, then they will say they are coming for reprisal. But they will never talk about the destruction that they have done in the village,” he said.
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He questioned the logic behind the violence, citing the scale of casualties recorded in previous attacks.
“One hundred and fifty-one, what have they done? What reprisal is taking place? Is that reprisal?
“So if the federal government will approve and justify this reprisal, then we have many ways of reprisal too,” he said.
Self-defence
Dachomo warned that farmers may resort to their own defensive measures if attacks persist.
“When you destroy my crops, I have chemicals. Not that we don’t have it, we put it on our farm to avoid a crisis. When the attacks come, they eat, they die. Don’t let them blame us. It’s a reprisal. Since the Nigerian government approved reprisal,” he said.
The cleric said he had instructed young people in affected communities “to prepare for self-defence.”
Dachomo recounted presenting a compilation of victims’ names to a government minister after violence in Gamboru. He criticised a presidential adviser who he said justified earlier killings.
“She doesn’t know she was carrying the blood, the names, the skeletons of those that are now in the grave on her hand. She doesn’t know that they [herders] kill you, they nail you, they shake your blood, 501 people.
“It was reprisal. And she was justifying it. That woman, a senior advisor to the president, I don’t blame her. It is an agenda given to her,” he claimed.
‘Compromise’
Dachomo argued that military deployment worsened local tensions and also alleged that the security structure had been compromised.
“Withdraw soldiers, you will see peace. Withdraw the general army, and you will see peace.
“The security has been polluted with the absorption of the repented Boko Haram assisting. And they are the ones who are giving information. They are still with their brothers in the bush,” he said.
