A 60-year-old Christian farmer was hacked to death with machetes in August, the latest victim of attacks by Muslim Fulani herdsmen in Nasarawa state who have burned church buildings and homes and destroyed crops in the past four years.
Barki Baikoh was working on his farm outside of Andaha town on 24th August when a group of herdsmen attacked him, area resident Jibrin Manager told Morning Star News.
“They cut him with machetes and then killed him,” Mr Manager said. “His corpse was found on the farm hours after a search party was organised to look for him.”
Mr Manager said Mr Baikoh, a parishioner at St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Andaha, had recently told family members that he had received threats from Fulani herdsmen who tried to attack his farm.
Police have arrested one of the herdsmen who assaulted Baikoh and are holding him in Lafia, the state capital, he said.
“He was injured during the attack on Barki, and after they killed Barki he went to a hospital in Akwanga town, Nasarawa state, to treat himself,” Mr Manager said. “It was in the hospital that the Fulani man was arrested by the police.”
The killing comes after Muslim Fulani herdsmen with machetes on 30th June killed Rev Zakariya Joseph Kurah of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) while he was working at his farm in Obi.
Christians in Nasarawa state, in Nigeria’s middle belt, have recently suffered loss of life, crops, home and education for their children at the hands of the herdsmen, according to a 2015 study commissioned by Christian support group Open Doors.
“The conflict in Nasarawa state is such that ethnic nationalities with a high Christian population are usually targeted, without any established or known provocation other than the difference of Christian faith to Islam,” the study reported.
Rev Emmanuel Haruna, chairman of the Lafia District Church Council of the ECWA, told Morning Star News that Christians have suffered attacks by Muslim Fulani herdsmen unabated for four years.
“Even as I speak to you, Fulani herdsmen take their cattle to farms of our church members and destroy their crops, and security agents have not been able to take measures to stop them,” he said. “These herdsmen do whatever that pleases them with Christian communities, and no one cares about such ugly trends in our state.”
Killing and displacement of ECWA church members have occurred in Adanba, Angwan Dariya, Ogeni, Udeni, Indeshi and Rutu, he said. Attacks forced the ECWA to shut down four of its congregations, as all members in those villages were either displaced or killed, he said.
