National President of the Berom Youths Moulders Association (BYM), Barrister Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri, has accused Fulani militants of raping and sexually assaulting women and girls on their farms after taking over villages in Barkin Ladi and Riyom Local Government Areas of Plateau State.
Mwantiri, who raised the alarm in a video recording while assessing some communities that were attacked and sacked by the bandits, lamented that after taking over the lands, the attackers have resorted to molesting the women.
The youth president decried that the invaders are not satisfied with killing the people and taking over their ancestral lands but now derive pleasure in humiliating the women by raping them and killing those who dare to resist.
Speaking in the video footage, Mwantiri said:
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“I am Barrister Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri, the National President of the Berom Youths Moulders Association (BYM). We are here in Gassa, Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, Plateau State.
“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 from where they were cultivated to the Fulani cows, but the Fulani herders brought their cows into the farms to graze and destroy the crops that were ready for harvest.
“There are uncultivated lands where they could have grazed peacefully, but they decided to graze on people’s farms just to destroy their crops and throw them into hunger.
“All we are crying out for now is justice. We want justice for these victims who have not done anything to warrant this wickedness from the Fulani people. It is not that they took their farms and cultivated them in Fulani settlements.
“The Fulani moved all the way from Fass, which is about three kilometers, to Gassa to graze and destroy people’s farms. Even the attacks they carry out have always been perpetrated from that end.
“We are calling on the government to declare that place a terrorist enclave so that the people can breathe and sleep with their two eyes closed. We know they will still come back and destroy the remaining farmlands.
“You can imagine the destruction they carried out in broad daylight, what will happen at night can only be imagined.
“Just a few weeks ago, they destroyed over 300 farms in Riyom. We see this as an economic war they are waging against our people. Apart from destroying the farmlands, the Fulani herders are killing our people, raping our women, defiling our children, and sacking our communities. Any woman who tries to resist them is either killed or maimed.
“So it is a holistic battle that these people have already planned and are implementing. Here, there is wilful grazing, while in other places, it is wilful mowing down of farm crops, where they come with machetes and cut down the crops.
“In this 2025, we have had not less than 4,000 farmlands destroyed by the Fulani people, and I mean completely destroyed, running into thousands of hectares of farmland.
“This is just in Gassa alone. We are not even talking about the ones in Rahos, Faan, Heipang, and other places. What this means is that all these communities have been earmarked for attacks, to weaken them economically and subject them to avoidable hunger.”
