‘All my hope shattered’ — man recounts losing 9 children in Nasarawa airstrike

Alfa Bello, a 60-year-old Fulani herder, has narrated how he lost nine children in the recent airstrike that occurred in Nasarawa state.

Several pastoralists were killed in an explosion resulting from an airstrike that occurred on January 25.

In an interview with DailyTrust, families of victims lamented the effects of the incident on their lives.

Speaking on the impact of the explosion, Bello said he was at home when one of his sons came to inform him about his cattle seized by the Benue livestock guards, adding that he paid N6 million to retrieve the animals.

“Benue state livestock guards arrested my cows and took them to Lanta area of the state. I went there and retrieved my cows, and while offloading them at Kwatan Angulu in Rukubi in Doma LGA, all of a sudden, an airstrike came from nowhere and killed my nine children, including my cows,” he said.

“Also, among those who were killed were 15 drivers who conveyed the cows from Benue.

“The death of my children has demoralised me. All my strength has finished. All my hope has been shattered. Those that killed my nine children have finished me.

“The bomb has destroyed all I had laboured for. Where do I start from? I have lost everything that I had laboured for in just one day. Since the sad incident happened, I have not been eating. In fact, I was put on drip.”

He called on the state and federal governments to intervene in the situation and assist him in paying the medical bills of those who sustained injuries.

Meanwhile, Bello Bodejo, national president of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, had raised concern over the effect of the anti-open grazing law on the herders in the area.

“The Fulani people have been pushed to the wall by incessant attacks, particularly in Benue state, as a result of anti-open grazing law, and I want to say it here today that an injury to one Fulani is an injury to the entire Fulani community in Africa,” he said.

“We have so far lost 40 Fulani to the attack, and as I speak to you now, 15 others are receiving treatment in various hospitals in Nasarawa state.

“Nine persons were killed in a single family during the attack. We are peace-loving people and we do not want any confrontation.

“The anti-grazing law that was established by governor Samuel Ortom is the reason for all the challenges that we are facing. The law should be scrapped because it was made by humans and not God. It is only when it is scrapped that all these challenges will come to an end.”