The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Southeast zone, has said it will extend the shutdown of cattle markets and settlement to other states in the zone to purge itself of violent elements.
Southeast Zonal Vice President Alhaji Gidado Siddiki, who spoke yesterday in Awka, said the action was neither a threat nor protest, but an attempt to address the accusations against Fulani herdsmen.
He said the Enugu shutdown was successful because some persons among them, who had no business with herding or other legitimate activities, had been asked to leave their fold.
He said: “We shutdown livestock and perishable good markets to enable us sensitise our members on the need for peaceful co-existence, that they should be watchful to know when bad people infiltrate their midst and chase them.
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“We have told them to belong to a group – cattle sellers; goat sellers; labourers – everybody has to be identified by the leader of their group, even in the Fulani settlement, people have to be known with their families.
“If there are people in these places who don’t have business, we are telling them to leave Enugu and the entire Southeast because we want to know those who are among us, so it is an internal audit.”
Siddiki, who is also the leader of Fulani community in Anambra, commiserated with families, which lost loved ones in the recent attack in Enugu, and expressed his group’s commitment to preventing a recurrence.
According to him, most of the troubles were caused by migrant herders.
He called on his members to stop migrating from state to state.
“The exercise is to show the indigenes, our hosts in the Southeast, that we are so worried by the complaints and accusations of violence and crime which is pointing at us. We condole with families, who lost loved ones, and we assure them that we are worried about the development.
“We started with Enugu as the regional head of the Southeast, but we will move into other states to ensure that the message gets to our members everywhere.
‘’We have identified that those causing problems among the Fulani are the migrants; that is why we are saying migration should stop, people should stay where they are and graze their cattle,” Siddiki added.
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