The National President of the Berom Youths Moulders Association (BYM), Barrister Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri, has accused suspected Fulani militants of raping and assaulting women and girls on their farms after allegedly taking over several villages in Barkin Ladi and Riyom Local Government Areas of Plateau State.
Mwantiri raised the alarm in a video recording while visiting some of the affected communities, lamenting that the attackers, after displacing residents and occupying their lands, have now resorted to molesting and killing women.
He alleged that the invaders were not satisfied with killing the people and taking over their ancestral lands but have continued to terrorize the remaining residents by destroying farmlands and inflicting untold hardship.
Speaking during the visit, Mwantiri said he was in Gassa community of Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, where over 60 farmlands ready for harvest had been deliberately destroyed by herders.
He said the destruction had left many farmers stranded and facing hunger, as the farmlands were their only means of livelihood.
According to him, “We are in the interior bush where over 60 farmlands that were ready for harvest in one or two weeks were mischievously and wilfully grazed upon and destroyed. As you can see, the farmers are here lamenting and crying out because of the hunger that has now set in. This is their only means of livelihood.
“Now that their farms and crops have been destroyed, they have no option but to become beggars in their own land.
It is not that these farms were moved to the Fulani settlements — the herders brought their cows into the farms to graze and destroy the crops that were ready for harvest.”
Mwantiri further alleged that the attackers deliberately targeted cultivated lands to worsen the suffering of the people.
“There are uncultivated lands where they could have grazed peacefully,” he said, “but they chose to graze on people’s farms just to destroy their crops and throw them into hunger.
All we are crying for now is justice. These victims have done nothing to deserve this wickedness.”
He added that the herders often moved from neighbouring villages such as Fass to Gassa to graze on people’s crops and carry out coordinated attacks on farmlands.
“We are calling on the government to declare that place a terrorist enclave so that our people can sleep with their eyes closed,” Mwantiri said. “Even in broad daylight, they destroy farms — imagine what happens at night. Just a few weeks ago, they destroyed over 300 farms in Riyom.
Apart from destroying farmlands, these herders are killing our people, raping our women, defiling our children, and sacking our communities.”
Describing the situation as an “economic war,” the BYM President said the sustained destruction of farmlands was aimed at crippling the local economy and subjecting residents to hunger.
“In this 2025 alone, we have had not less than 4,000 farmlands completely destroyed by the Fulani people,” he stated. “This is just in Gassa.
We are not even talking about Rahos, Faan, Heipang, and other places. It’s a calculated attempt to weaken our people economically and plunge them into hardship.”