At least five persons have been wounded in a clash between farmers and herders in Mai Ganji community in Danbatta Local Government area of Kano State.
According to eyewitnesses, the clash between local farmers and itinerant herders started Thursday evening when the herders trespassed with their animals into farms, damaging yet-to-harvest crops.
The victims, according to Freedom Radio, a local radio station, have since been admitted to a hospital in Danbatta.
A farmer identified as Malam Shuaibu reportedly witnessed the incident. He told the radio that his neighbour swiftly ran to protect his farm, following a piece of information on the pastoralists action grazing his hibiscus farmland.
Shuaibu said one of the victims was “trying to stop their donkeys from grazing on his farm, one of the young men among the herders hit him, and he fell to the ground. They ran before I could reach them; they fled. Our youths started pursuing them but couldn’t find them. Our ward head later asked that we return. He promised to visit the suspects with a leader of a local Fulani community.”
“They returned with four other injured persons.”
Another resident of Mai Ganji, Magaji Sani, confirmed the incident, stressing that he was working on his farm when he heard that the pastoralists had attacked some people.
While he expressed concern about development, he emphasised they were yet to harvest their farm produce, yet “they refused to leave.”
“Later, since they won’t leave, we came out en mass to ask them to leave. They suddenly started shooting at us with arrows and bows as we approached them. They had more weapons than us, and they injured four people on the spot,” Sani said.
Shamsuddin Lawan, another farmer, explained their relationship with other herders, over the years, was not cordial, especially during the rainy season.
According to Lawan, “They almost always graze on our farms of millet, sorghum, and hibiscus. They came here, and when we asked them to leave, they shot at us. I was lucky to evade an arrow myself. I would have been among the wounded by now.”
He urged the Kano State government to take necessary steps to forestall the escalation of the situation.
The Village Head of Mai Ganji, Yusha’u Galadima, described the situation as unjust. He questioned why the herders would continually graze on the villagers’ farms before their eyes, with serious consequences should the farmers resist.
Galadima observed that such situations could escalate to the area’s breakdown of law and order. “People would resist such brazen attacks on their farms because that is all they have in the nation’s currently turbulent economy,” he added.
However, the village head asked the government and relevant stakeholders to take preventive measures to avoid replicating the attacks in the neighboring states.
In his remark, the Kano State Police Spokesperson, Deputy Supretiendent of Police (DSP), Abdullahi Kiyawa, confirmed to The WikkiTimes that he heard of the incident but did not provide further details.
He said he was on his way to the office, where he would issue a statement later in the day.
