Taraba: Our deserted homes taken over by herders, says Kona women

Kona women on Sunday alleged that their deserted homes have been taken over by herdsmen who now graze freely on their farms.

The women who spoke to our correspondent at the Kona Primary school IDPs Camp in Jalingo said they no longer have hope of earning a livelihood as their farms have been taken over by cows.

Mrs. Mary Kamai who spoke on behalf of the women called on government to provide security to the troubled communities of Janibanibu, Sembe, Yawai-Abbare, Murbai and other adjoining villages to enable them to return to their homes.

“Our villages are no go areas. Herdsmen have taken over our villages.

“Some of our husbands who tried to check our deserted homes have been killed by the attackers and obviously we are going to face food shortage next year.

“We were told that the President had directed security agencies to end the killings in our communities, but we are yet to see full action to that effect.

“We can’t access our villages not to talk of going to our farms. We are mostly farmers and we need to go farm to feed ourselves and solve our problems.

“We also want to appeal to the government to rehabilitate our homes as most of our houses were burnt during the attacks,” Mrs. Kamai said.

But the Commanding Officer of the 20 Battalion,  Nigerian Army,  Lt. Col. Mohammed Sani Adamu in a telephone interview with our correspondent in Jalingo said men of the Nigerian Army were fully on the ground.

“Go to Janibanibu now and call me back if you haven’t seen our men stationed there,” he said.

(PUNCH)