By Mike Odeh James and Izhi Bitrus Adamu
(Takum, Taraba State) Fulani ethnic militia (FEM) killed six Christians in coordinated farm ambushes across Takum County less than 48 hours after Governor Agbu Kefas declared Taraba State safe for investors.
The killings began Monday morning, April 20, when Fulani Terrorists ambushed Aondoungwa Kpeibee and his wife on their way to the farm in Amadu Chanchanji community. “The Fulani people tried to rape the wife in front of the husband,” Zaki Martins Ayua told TruthNigeria. “She refused, so they macheted them after shooting them each with a gun.”
Five hours later, while villagers mourned the couple, Fulani terrorists struck again. Terver Shaapera was killed on his way to the farm. A mile away, Martina Ityav met the same fate.
“Three women went to the farm yesterday at Tyo-Jande village in Madu,” Hon. Jolly Butu, Takum community leader of the Tiv Christian population, said on April 21. “They were attacked by Fulani. I learned that one of them died at the scene, and two escaped.”
Credit Facebook Page of Kefas.
The six lost their lives as Governor Kefas was still celebrating the April 18 Nwonyo International Fishing Festival in Ibi County, where he told national and international guests that “the presence of national and international guests signals growing confidence in the state’s security and tourism potential.” President Bola Tinubu, represented by Minister Hannatu Musawa, attended the event alongside Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang and Grenada Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell.
“Taraba remained safe and open to investors,” Kefas boasted at the festival, where the first three fishing competition winners received cash prizes totaling $9,300.
Encirclement Tactics
“Usually, the Fulani divide themselves into smaller groups of 5s and 10s armed killers and spread out encircling the towns laying ambush to our people who attempt going to the farms,” Butu said, describing a systematic pattern that has rendered farming impossible across Southern Taraba.
More than 30 Christian villages in Takum, Donga, and Ussa counties have been abandoned since 2019, according to residents interviewed by TruthNigeria. Most Rev. Mark Maigida Nzukwein, Catholic Bishop of Wukari, confirmed that more than 300 Christians of the Tiv and Kuteb tribes have been killed in Southern Taraba since 2019, with at least 30,000 displaced.
The April 20-21 killings followed a three-week surge. On March 29, four women were killed on their farms. One April 6 a couple and three others were shot dead in Amadu town. On April 10, a woman was killed and dumped in a well after refusing a rape attempt. April 12 brought another killing and three hospitalizations.
Pattern Across Middle Belt
The Taraba violence mirrors simultaneous campaigns across Nigeria’s Middle Belt. Between April 13 and 24, Fulani Terrorists killed at least eleven people in Agatu and Apa counties in neighboring Benue State, including nine men massacred in a single night in Ankpali, Edikwu community. Fulani forces blocked federal highways and burned homes across multiple Benue communities during the same period TruthNigeria documented the Taraba killings.
“The federal government has consistently failed to protect Christian communities from these coordinated attacks,” David Onyilokwu Idah, Director of the International Human Rights Commission in Abuja, told TruthNigeria in previous reporting on Middle Belt violence. “What we are witnessing is not farmer-herder clashes but systematic displacement of indigenous populations.”
“The security architecture in the Middle Belt has completely collapsed,” Friday Agbo, Managing Director of Alterkonsult, a Kaduna-based security think-tank, has said in earlier interviews. “Governors make proclamations about safety while their constituents are being slaughtered on their farms. The disconnect between official statements and ground reality is absolute.”
“Governors make proclamations about safety while their constituents are being slaughtered on their farms. The disconnect between official statements and ground reality is absolute,” according to Agbo.
Agbo’s assessment proved prophetic in Taraba. Hours after the April 20-21 killings, gunshots rang out from Fulani-controlled areas surrounding Amadu. “It was not an attack,” locals told TruthNigeria. “It was a celebration.”
“Loud gunshots in the enemies’ camps are usually celebration of success, arrival of reimbursement either in form of logistics or famous warlords,” Rev. Monday M. Gulu, a Jos-based advocate, told TruthNigeria.
The ancestral Christian villages of the Amadu region have become Fulani enclaves. Farming has ceased. Displacement is total. And 48 hours after the governor assured international dignitaries of Taraba’s safety, six more Christians were dead.
Mike Odeh James and Izighe Bitrus Adamu are conflict reporters with TruthNigeria.
