For querying wrong grazing, Plateau community leader gets deep machete cut in head

Mr. Luka Badung, a Community leader in Central Nigeria’s Plateau State, Tuesday suffered brutal machete attack, when he asked a herder to control his straying cattle, MK gathers.

Banghai hamlet in Bachi District of Riyom Local Government Area, the home of the attacked villager, had previously been invaded several times by armed assailants believed to be herders.

Since the June 2012 herdsmen murder of Mr. Gyang Dantong, a native Senator representing Plateau North in the Nigerian National Assembly however, farmers and herders cohabited peacefully in the community until the attack on the community leader.

“It was the least of my expectations, given that I know him and he knows me. And we have stayed together with his parents for long without any conflicts,” said Mr. Badung.

The attacker, grazing in Badung’s backyard where local goats were kept, refused to move his cattle, when admonished to, but instead accosted the Village Chief.

Badung in an interview with MK said, “Several times I asked him to move the cattle to avoid damaging the robes used to tie the goats but he ignored me. When I attempted chasing the cattle away, he rushed me with a herding stick. He hit me on the rib, shoulder and neck. When I fell down, he pulled out a machete and struck me on the head, leaving me for dead.”

The herder identified as Jafaru, is still unarrested, but his parents have been footing the medical bills of the assaulted community leader.

Another Community leader in Bokkos Local Government Area, Musa Daniel Taka, was Sunday murdered in a similar attack.

Taka was hit with a machete near his house, by suspected herdsmen, hours to a meeting he scheduled to settle another case of attack on a local farmer.

The farmer, Mr. Amas Daniel was assaulted with herding sticks last week Thursday when he asked a group of herders to move their straying cattle out of his farm.

Parents of the herders were compelled by Police with the intervention of the slain community leader, to foot the attacked farmer’s hospital bills.

The herders, just like Mr. Bangai’s attacker, are still unarrested, despite evidences linking them to the murder of a villager in February 2020.

Observers say impunity might be responsible for the persisting attacks in the Central Nigerian State.