County Chairman Disputes Protestors’ Claims
By Ebere Inyama
(Enugu) Economic and social activities were completely shut down in Eha-Amufu, Isi-Uzu county of Enugu State on Tuesday March 4, 2025 and Wednesday March 5, 2025 as thousands of women staged protests against incessant attacks and killings in the area by the Fulani ethnic militia (FEM).
The Fulani tribe claims up to 10 million Nigerian members and is known for cattle herding. Virtually all kidnapping gangs in Northern Nigeria are headed by Fulani Islamists.
The women, drawn from seven autonomous communities, blocked a two-kilometre stretch of the Nkalagu-Eha-Amufu-Ikem-Obollo-Afor Federal Highway on Wednesday March 5, 2025 in a bid to call the attention of the Enugu State Government to the criminal activities of the Fulani ethnic militia in their villages.
Speaking during an interview with TruthNigeria, a resident of Eha-Amufu, Mrs. Veronica Eneagu, said the protest held on Wednesday would have been avoided if the state government had addressed the protesters on Tuesday and assured them that their demands would be looked into.
“The protest on Tuesday was carried out by hundreds of women from three communities, namely Mgbuji, Umujove located in Isi-Uzu County”, Mrs. Eneagu began during the interview with TruthNigeria.
“Rather than going to the scene of the protest to address the protesters and reassure them of government’s commitment to tackle the security challenges in the rural communities, the chairman of Isi-Uzu County, Mr. Obiora Obeagu, issued a statement saying that the protest was sponsored by some people who are bent on causing unrest in the state”, she went on to say.
“This unfortunate response by the chairman of Isi-Uzu County infuriated the entire women in the county and as a result, thousands of women from ten communities in the county mobilized themselves and marched to Nkalagu-Eha-Amufu-Ikem-Obollo-Afor Federal Highway on Wednesday 6 March to drive home their demand,” she added.
A resident of Idodo, a rural community in Nkanu East county of Enugu state, Mrs. Blessing Omebe, speaking to TruthNigeriaTV, said she fled from her community because she did not want to become a victim of attack by the Fulani ethnic militia.
“The Fulani militia often attack us in our farms. They do not allow us to harvest our crops from our farms. They often bring their cattle to graze on our crops,” Mrs. Omebe began during the interview with TruthNigeria TV.
“When the men in our community try to confront them, they attack and kill the men, and when they meet our women in the farms, they attack and rape them,” she continued to say.
“I do not want to be a victim, and that is why I fled from my community with my children. We are begging the government to come to our aid before we die of hunger,” she added.
Speaking further with TruthNigeriaTV, Omebe said that the situation is getting increasingly worse, adding that if nothing is done to stop the attacks by the Fulani militia, more people would be killed, and the entire community would be deserted.
Protesters accuse government officials of incompetence
One of the protest leaders, Mrs. Angela Ogenyi, who spoke to journalists at the scene of the protest accused the Enugu state governor, Mr. Peter Mbah of negligence, adding that the state government has not done anything meaningful to ensure the safety of the rural dwellers in the state.
“After our protest on March 4, which was intended to draw attention of Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State and his administration to the massacre going on in Eha-Amufu over the years, with no signs of ending, the council chairman went to the media to claim the protest was sponsored”, Ogenyi began.
“He is from Mgbuji autonomous community, yet because he has not been visiting home, he doesn’t know that residents of farm settlements in his community had been sacked and occupied by herdsmen for more than two years now, yet he is the Isi-Uzu council chairman”, she continued to say.
“Today, we the women of entire Eha-Amufu, comprising Mgbuji, Umujove, Agu-amede, Abor, Isu, Orokoro, Ikpakpara, Umuhu, Amede, and Ihenyi [communities] have decided to stage the mother of all protests to draw the attention of Governor Peter Mbah to the killings. He has done little or nothing to stop the carnage since he assumed office in 2023,” Ogenyi said.
“Our women are being raped, beaten, and mutilated by suspected herdsmen,” she continued.
“Our husbands and sons are too afraid to go to their farms. When we go to our farms, we are beaten and raped by Fulani herdsmen, who also insert sticks into our private parts.
“You can see the population of women protesting. Who is sponsoring us? We want the governor to come and address us if we are still part of the state”, Ogenyi added.
Response by Enugu state government
In a statement shortly after the Tuesday protest by some women of Eha-Amufu communities, the Isi-Uzo county chairman, Mr. Obiora Obeagu, blamed the protest on deliberate misinformation and politicization of security matters by some political actors.
“I wish to categorically state that the protest that happened on Tuesday 4th March, 2025 was a sponsored protest and political propaganda orchestrated by mischievous elements and enemies of progress, who fed the protesting women with lies and false information for political capital”, Obeagu began in the statement.
“We acknowledge that there was an unfortunate incident of rape on February 17, 2025. I took up the hospital bills, and the woman has been discharged but the narrative of insertion of stick in private part is false”, he continued in the statement.
“We acknowledge that we have had incidents of farmers/herders clashes across the communities of Isi-Uzo LGA sharing borders with Benue and Ebonyi States dating back to over 15 years.
“However, the Governor Peter Mbah Administration has been working relentlessly with Isi-Uzo Local Government to tackle and put an end to this problem in our farm settlements”, the statement read.
The “Christian genocide”
As with other states in the southeastern part of Nigeria, Enugu state is overwhelmingly dominated by Christians.
Attacks by the Fulani militia on locals in Enugu have reportedly claimed more than 150 lives with more than 20 farm settlements overrun and occupied by herdsmen between 2020 and 2025.
On May 1, 2024, TruthNigeria reported that men speaking the language of the Fulani tribe attacked the Nimbo community in Uzo-Uwani local government area (county) of Enugu state, killing at least 4 people and leaving many others injured.
The report added that the tragic loss of life was the 10th such onslaught in Enugu by FEM since 2012.
The loss of life called a “Christian genocide” by many observers involves the Fulani herding tribe seeking to claim more territory for their herds. Most such attacks during the last 12 years have happened in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, but Enugu is a state of Nigeria’s Southeast region, where swamp forests in its south meet lush grasslands in the northern band of the state.
Ebere Inyama is an Imo state – based conflict reporter for TruthNigeria
