By Amah
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The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) said on Thursday that violent attacks on local communities and killings of farmers in Plateau, Benue and other parts of the country are mostly perpetrated by foreign cattle herders.
Director, Defence Media Operations, Maj.-Gen. Markus Kangye, while fielding questions from journalists on the identities of armed herders attacking farming communities, said the dialects of the perpetrators were not local.
Several communities, especially in Plateau and Benue states, have recently faced a series of attacks by armed herders, with many killed and thousands rendered homeless.
Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, also recently said the attackers were foreign herders taking advantage of ECOWAS protocol on free movement of livestock to invade communities.
Responding to newsmen on Thursday, Kangye said that even though the Hausa language was spoken in different parts of Africa, it was easy to identify those who were non-Nigerians.
According to him, when you hear them talk in some instances, you will be able to decipher whether those people were from Nigeria or not.
“Hausa language, like any other language, has different versions and intonations.
“So the Hausa spoken in Nigeria has differences between the Hausa spoken in Mali, the Hausa spoken in the Central African Republic, and the Hausa spoken in Ghana.
“So when we arrest these herders and terrorists, even the way they speak and appear is clear to see, and even the hair will tell you that this person is not from Nigeria.
“I think the only community in Nigeria that has hair similar to the Shuwa in the Sahel region is probably the Shuwa Arabs in Borno, but they don’t even have the same hair.
“So one will also admit that many of those terrorising our people are foreigners, even though some of them are also Nigerians,” he said.
Kangye said that some herders of Nigerian origin also get involved in the process of rearing their cattle.
He added that some of them often encroached on people’s farms, resulting in conflict between the farmers and the herders.
“But know that most of the violence and incessant killings you are hearing in some parts of this country are perpetrated by those who find their way into the porous borders of our country.
“But we must as a nation rise up together with other agencies whose responsibility it is to ensure that those who come into Nigeria are accounted for.
“There are agencies responsible for that, so we have to collaborate, and that is why we say we work within a joint environment to ensure that we address insecurity,” he added. (NAN)
