The Gan Allah Fulani Development Association of Nigeria filed a $200 million lawsuit against the federal government and Taraba for allegedly violating their rights during the recent communal clash between herdsmen and farmers on the Mambilla plateau.
The suit was filed at the ECOWAS court in Abuja, demanding the huge sum as damaged for lives and properties lost to the mayhem.
No fewer than 18 people were killed in the June violence, but the Fulani community insisted at least 732 people died or missed, and 25,000 head of cattle were destroyed.
Residents of the Mambilla plateau in Sardauna local government area of Taraba clashed over land dispute last month.
Taraba Governor Ishaku Darius was fingered as the mastermind behind the attack on the Fulani. He has denied it, though.
The group said their the defendants violated fundamental human rights of Fulani communities on the Mambilla Plateau as guaranteed by the African Charter on Human and Peoples, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Its lawyer, law Prof Yusuf Dankofa and three others said the federal government and Taraba destroyed lives and properties in 19 communities in Mambilla “between 17th and 23rd of June, 2017 in a well-coordinated and organized manner fit to be aptly described as “Genocide”.
The communities mowed down include Gembu Ardorate, M/Sollare Ardorate, Part of Mbamnga Ardorate, Ngubin Ardorate, Mayo-Dule, Papa Ardorate, Mbar Ardorate, Tamnya Ardorate, Laide Ardorate, and Ardo Ali Nguroje.
Nigerians have witnessed scads of herdsmen-farmer clashes over the years. The mist recent was the Kaduna clash last week when more than 30 people were killed following a reprisal by a Fulani settlement which lost a boy in an attack by farmers.