Herdsmen Invasion and their Impact on the Church in Ukum, Benue State

Abstract

The article examines herdsmen's attacks and their impact on the Church in Ukum. The paper is qualitative research thus, it employed secondary sources of data and adopts descriptive and analytic methods. Descriptive method was used to describe the herdsmen attacks while analytic method was employed to analyze the impact of the attacks on the Church in Ukum. It was found in the study that, the phenomenon of herdsmen attacks has a negative impact on the activities of the Church. Herdsmen attacks like other acts of insecurity have a profound impact on the economy, social and religious life of the Ukum and the state in general. It has thwarted the socio-economic growth of the state through killings, destruction of farms and property, and destruction of schools and religious gatherings. The Church has suffered these destructions and it has hindered its growth. The activities of the Church especially in rural communities have been affected by the attacks as the fear of being attacked has kept Christians in such areas away from gathering freely and reaching out to the members to encourage them. The study therefore recommended that the government should implement the anti-open grazing law and encourage ranching. The government must also ban the Fulani herdsmen from moving about with rifles. Also the Church on its part should continue to pray and seek intervention on the issue of herdsmen attacks. Church leaders too need to educate their members on safety measures that will help minimise the destruction that is caused by the herdsmen attacks in the state.