The Nation Newspaper

Tag: herdsmen

  • Fayose’s order against herdsmen condemnable, says brother

    Fayose’s order against herdsmen condemnable, says brother

    Oluwasegun Fayose, the Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose’s eldest brother , has condemned the latter for instructing farmers to attack herdsmen.

    He said the governor’s directive did not portray him as a true leader.

    Oluwasegun, in an interview with The Nation in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, said his brother was embarrassing the family by some of his actions and utterances.

    According to him, “leaders are not supposed to make comments that are capable of inciting the public or bringing their family’s name into disrepute.

    “I totally disagree with him. I do not like what he is doing. He is dragging the family name in the mud. I read in national dailies that Ayo Fayose was inciting Ekiti people against herdsmen.

    “I have never seen where a leader talks like this before. I spent most of my life in Europe. I left Nigeria in 1976. My children are still there. I want them to be able to come home. I do not want to be harassed. Let it be on record that I do not support this kind of aggressive method of governance. He is too vulgar for my liking.”

    Rather than making utterances that do not portray him and the Fayose family as noble, Oluwasegun advised, the governor should keep quiet.

  • Herdsmen attacks: Benue vows to stop incessant crises

    Herdsmen attacks: Benue vows to stop incessant crises

    Benue State Governor   will take stringent measures to check incessant herdsmen attacks  on communities, Deputy Governor Benson Abounu has said.

    Abounu, who was fielding questions from reporters, condemned Tuesday’s attack on Tse Aondo, Tse Ankyou and Igbogom in Ukum council. Seven persons were killed and several houses destroyed in the crisis.

    Abounu, who said the herdsmen came from Taraba State, lamented that despite the government’s efforts to halt them, the attacks have continued.

    He described as ridiculous, claims by the Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong that both states had agreed to take a World Bank loan for cattle grazing.

    He said Benue was yet to apply for the loan, even as he reiterated that the loan was not for grazing.

    The Berom communities in Plateau State have petitioned the State Security Council over renewed attacks by gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen.

    The groups, under their umbrella organisation-Berom Educational and Cultural Organisation (BECO), warned that if the security agencies failed to protect them, they would be forced to defend themselves.

    In the petition dated May 30 and addressed to the Chairman of the State Security Council, BECO said it decided to take the action following the recent attacks by the herdsmen.

    The petition, signed by General Secretary Davou Choji Davou and Chairman, Committee on Media and Publicity, Sam Godongs reads: “For the avoidance of doubt, in the last one month, four Berom people have been killed in Zim, Kwok, Dajak-Shopp and Hoss, while other dastardly acts have been witnessed in Byei, Jol and Shonong.

    “These communities are being pushed to the wall by forceful displacements, siege, reign of terror, ambushes and other forms of violence. The development is causing fear, anxiety and tension, which might possibly erupt into violence.

    “It is in view of the above that BECO is constrained to write the State Security Council because the raining season is most critical to the Berom people who are predominantly peasant farmers. Presently, Berom farmers are in dire need of protection and security as they work their farm lands.”

  • Herdsmen metamorphosis

    Herdsmen metamorphosis

    ASTOUNDED by the scale of destruction herdsmen brought upon Agatu Local Government Area of Benue State recently, some of the baffled victims declared that the perpetrators could not be the indigenous Fulani cattle rearers they were familiar with. The ones they knew, said some of the victims, used sticks, not assault rifles, to herd cattle. Apart from questioning the claims that hundreds of people were killed by herdsmen in Agatu, insisting he saw no evidence of 300 corpses buried anywhere, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase, suggested that the breakdown of law and order in the Maghreb, in particular Libya, and to some extent Mali, could point to why the attacks had intensified in recent times. At worst, said the IGP, local herdsmen could be nothing more than collaborators who lent a helping hand to the attackers.

    The federal government then weighed in on the killings, stung by criticism that it had handled the crisis rather lackadaisically. It also claimed that the killers were not Nigerians. The herdsmen, it seemed to their approving observers, had begun to metamorphose. They were no longer Nigerians because some of the arrested herdsmen spoke no Nigerian language, chorused the observers. But those who attacked and abducted former secretary to the government of the federation, Olu Falae, spoke Nigerian languages, including pidgin, the Afenifere chieftain insisted. It was clear that both the police and the presidency, for reasons that remain a puzzle, were eager to blame foreigners for the herdsmen attacks. The IGP believed that even if local herdsmen were involved in the attacks, they merely lent support. It is remarkable he didn’t think foreign herdsmen could in fact be the ones lending support to local herdsmen, as the herdsmen associations have stubbornly reiterated after many of such attacks.

    Worried that the claim of foreign herdsmen ravaging Nigerian communities could gain currency if not checked, the spokesman of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Ekpedeme King, said: “There is no evidence that the herdsmen are foreigners, and the immigration service doesn’t profile immigrants based on their ethnicity. So, the NIS cannot say whether the herdsmen are Nigerians or not because nobody has produced them for us to profile them. We are at the borders and we have not seen any herdsman coming into the country. We have our men at the borders and they are doing their job. So far, what we have heard is speculation that they are from foreign countries, but no one has profiled them to know their identities. However, it is not impossible that they could be foreigners.”

    While the foreigner status of the herdsmen was still unresolved, the Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Tukur Buratai, also added his voice by suggesting that the suspect herdsmen could have some connections with the Boko Haram militant sect now being vanquished in the Northeast part of the country. “One may not be too far from the fact that some of these herdsmen that are attacking communities across the country may have some affiliation with the Boko Haram terrorists,” suggested the army chief. “This we are further investigating and also pursuing them so that we can address the situation…” Nigerians will hope that the investigations will end soon, especially considering that nearly all the herdsmen arrested abducting, raping and killing have so far been both Fulani and Nigerian, despite the anger of those who denounce ethnic profiling of the attackers.

    Late last week, the police arrested five herdsmen alleged to have masterminded the attack on Ukpabi Nimbo community in Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area, Enugu State. According to the police, the suspects were in possession of a video recording of the attack. But it is curious that in parading the suspects, the police gave no indication whatsoever of the background of the herdsmen, whether they were foreigners or indigenous, and whether they had links to Boko Haram or operated in isolation.

    What is surprising in the unfolding tragedy is not even the metamorphosis of the herdsmen from one violent genre to another, but that many years after the problem assumed such tragic turn in full public glare, the government and the country’s security agencies have neither arrested the problem nor established the identity and modus operandi of the attackers. They have restricted themselves to unedifying guesswork and rumours. Meanwhile, Nigerians will hope that the metamorphosis will not take on a life of its own, further complicating the identity and contrivances of the herdsmen and putting them beyond the reach of Nigeria’s domestic typology.

     

  • Fayose and the herdsmen

    Fayose and the herdsmen

    From Agatu in Benue State to Nimbo community in Enugu State, the actions of AK-47-wielding herdsmen continue to provoke outrage. Just when you think you have seen the worst, reports emerge of another attack on defenceless villagers.

    Last weekend reports came of an attack by the herdsmen on an Ekiti State community which left two persons dead and many others injured. Those who survived the violence simply fled their homes and it’s not certain if they have returned.

    After the angry reactions that followed the Nimbo killings, President Buhari ordered security agencies to go after the killers and bring them to book. But the seeming inability of the Federal Government and its agencies to stamp out the trend is complicating the fragile security situation in the country.

    Into the void all sorts of opportunists are jumping in with unhelpful and ill-digested interventions. Take the example of the excitable Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose.

    Reacting to the deaths in Ekiti he declared: “On no account should anybody come to sack our communities again, rise up against them. Before any herdsmen kill you, kill them, before they rape your wives, kill them, and before they rape your children kill them.

    “I am giving you this order before they kill you kill them. You have to defend yourselves. Before they get you, you must get them down and take them out. You should pursue them, go and search for them inside the forest. Anyone who comes to take your life, you must take them out.

    “We will not leave our lands for Fulani herdsmen and in a system where the leadership of the country looks the other way while our people are being killed, we will have no option than to defend ourselves,” he added.

    Some people have been quick to praise Fayose for these inflammatory comments arguing that he acted because Buhari failed to do so.

    It would be naïve to think that people who cannot get help from government to defend their lands and lives, would sit idly by and be killed like chicken by faceless, roaming bands of killers. At some point they are going to resort to self help and defend themselves.

    However, a person in Fayose’s position should not be seen to be inciting people to kill no matter the justification. Compare his reaction to that of Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.

    Such gubernatorial outbursts and decrees are open to liberal interpretation by those who receive them.

    When people begin to implement the governor’s directive to the letter there would be repercussions far beyond the borders of Ekiti State. Obviously, he didn’t consider that because the sun rises in Ado-Ekiti and sets in Ikole-Ekiti.

    Rather than inciting our people to indiscriminate killings, we should raise our voices until we get an appropriate response from Buhari and the responsible agencies.

    Many political leaders have landed in the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague for trial when ethnic conflict consumed their countries. They went on trial not because they pulled the trigger, but because their inflammatory comments and speeches were considered the remote control that set off the killing sprees.

    Ask President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto of Kenya; ask Ratko Mladic, Slobodan Milosevic and Radovan Karadzic of the former Yugoslavia.

    But I doubt if Fayose would care because that would interfere with his juvenile need to be noticed as the noisiest kid on the block.

  • Herdsmen may have affiliation with Boko Haram terrorists – Buratai

    Herdsmen may have affiliation with Boko Haram terrorists – Buratai

    The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Yusuf Buratai, has hinted that the attacks on villagers and farmers in many parts of the country by herdsmen may be due to likely affiliation with members of the Boko Haram terrorists.

    Buratai urged Nigerians to be security conscious and to report to the security agencies, any suspicious persons or group of people roaming about in their communities.

    The Army Chief of Staff, who gave the hint in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, when he visited Governor Ibikunle Amosun on Thursday, said the army is investigating the herdsmen and also pursuing them so that their menace could be addressed.

    “We want to call on all Nigerians to be security conscious and to report any suspicious persons or group of people that are roaming about in their communities.

    “One may not be too far from the fact that some of these herdsmen that are attacking communities across the country may have some affiliation with the Boko Haram terrorists.

    “This we are further investigating and also pursuing them so that we can address the situation, so let’s be security conscious. Let’s report quickly movement of suspicious persons carrying arms especially.

    “If you suspect any individual within your community, we should be able to report immediately. Timely information is very important. We have our troops deployed in certain areas and I believe the Police are working with them to be able to tackle any challenge that comes in from them,” Buratai said.

    He also revealed that members of the Boko Haram sect did not capture any village when they attacked a small community in Borno state few days ago, saying Nigerian troops responded swiftly and chased them away.

    He noted that troops are patrolling all places in Borno and coordinating with ‎the multinational joint task force to ensure that the nation’s borders are well secured and are blocked from any infiltration.

    He said: “they didn’t capture any village. They went and attack a community, small community in Borno State and our troops responded appropriately and we will continue to pursue them wherever they are.

    “This situation may continue for some time, this is just pocket of them that sneaked out to go and commit such atrocities. Our troops are on top of the situation and we will continue to address such challenges.

    “You know generally terrorism has no specific phase, they mix among the people anytime they want to strike, they sneaked out and commit such atrocities, so I want to tell you that no community is under Boko Haram as at now.

    “No local government or any ward that we can say is under any Boko Haram seige. Our troops are patrolling all those places and we are coordinating with ‎the multinational joint task force to ensure that the borders are well secured and are blocked from any infiltration.”

    Earlier, Amosun Called for Creation of Army Division in Ogun State.

    The Governor said Ogun State population has increased to over 7 million just as the economy of the state has also expanded to the point where the state can be said to be ripe for an Army Division of its own.

    “We want our own Army division here in Ogun State,” Governor said.

    He also lauded the Nigerian Army for the successes it has recorded against insurgency in the North East region of the country and cases of insecurity in other parts of the country.

    “We want to commend their effort because we know that before now we all know what the Boko Haram has turned Nigeria into, but up their effort, they have restored sanity by bringing back the dignity of the Nigerian Army and the entire Nigerians.

    ” Not only that ‎they are  helping in all the security challenges we are having as a nation. The nefarious activities of the herdsmen truly needs to be checked, the Avengers, the kidnapping and all sort.

    “The Army is being over worked. We are calling on them all the time and they are responding, for that; I want to say well done to them and still challenge them to do more.
    In Ogun State, the Army has been tremendous to us.

    “We thank them for this entire success story that we are recording. The most is rated the most secured state and I want to say that we can’t do it alone. All the security agencies in Ogun State are working together in harmony,” Amosun said.

  • President Buhari and Fulani herdsmen

    I think it is a great pity that the Buhari presidency, which started with a promise of change and hope for Nigeria, is now letting itself be defined by the most primitive development that this country has ever experienced. I refer to the series of barbarous invasions of various rural communities and small villages across Nigeria by the people whom we all call Fulani herdsmen.

    In the past few years, the rampage has been mostly in the Middle Belt, where a long succession of destruction of villages and massacres of their inhabitants has ultimately painted an unmistakeable picture of deliberate and systematic genocide. Today, no serious minded Nigerian can doubt what the citizens of the Middle Belt have been saying – namely, that there is a plan by the Fulani to wipe out some Middle Belt peoples and take over their territories.

    This Middle Belt picture is bad enough. The fact that it is taking place in today’s Nigeria disqualifies Nigeria to be regarded as a member of the modern world’s comity of nations. Worse, it is enough to eliminate Nigeria’s claim to be one country at all. And it continues, without any hope of letting off.

    At first, only few scattered forages of this sickening crime reached the states of the Nigerian South. But that has now changed. The rampage has now spread fully to the states of Southern Nigeria, even all the way to the states in the thick, and sometimes mangrove, forests of the Atlantic coastlands where there is not much grass to attract cattle. Suddenly bursting on rural communities in the dead of night, blatantly killing, maiming and seriously wounding men, women and children, burning homes and barns, and, reportedly, raping women, and then slinking away in the dark, this army of invasion has struck in almost every state of Southern Nigeria. A couple of weeks ago, the governor of Enugu State burst into tears when he saw the scene of total horror left behind by the invaders in a part of his state. Today, the Governor of Ekiti State is mourning the dead and struggling to save the lives of the maimed and wounded men, women and children of the small town in his state where the invaders struck a few days ago.

    It is getting worse. From the way this whole thing is shaping up, it can only get worse and worse. Nigerians are wondering why none of these desperadoes are being arrested. From time to time in the war against Boko Haram, we get reports that some of the Boko Haram terrorists have been captured and arrested; we are even shown pictures of these in the media. Nigerians cannot help asking, why the difference? Why are these people not being arrested?

    Indeed, why are they still able to move across this country at will and strike at will wherever they choose to? Why does it seem as if nobody, no authority, is doing anything to stop them – or even to restrain them even a little?

    Yes, Nigerians know that the president has ordered the military and police authorities to stop these people’s attacks on villages and farmsteads. But why is it that the president’s order seems to be producing no measurable result? Why, in spite of the president’s order, are these killers still freely and boldly spreading across Nigeria, killing, maiming and destroying, and getting away through long distances, all without encountering any disturbance by Nigerian law enforcement?

    Can Nigerians be blamed if they say, as they are now increasingly saying in the open media, that they suspect something fishy in this whole situation? Can Nigerians be blamed if, for instance, they say, as more and more of them are openly saying that they suspect that Nigeria’slaw enforcement authorities are afraid to deal with these killer herdsmen as they would deal with all other citizens because the killer herdsmen are the ethnic kinsmen of President Buhari?

    Moreover, since the Nigerian government has chosen to give little or no information to Nigeria about this killer gang, about its ways and means of operation, and about its purpose and objective for its hideous brutalization of peaceful Nigerian citizens across the face of Nigeria, is it surprising that Nigerians are themselves finding ways to fill the information gap? We have all tended to identify these people as Fulani herdsmen, but most of us are now saying that, though many of them are indeed Nigerian Fulani herdsmen, very many others are neither Fulani nor herdsmen. That very many are foreigners who have come to Nigeria.

    Very importantly, President Buhari himself has strengthened these suspicions. Without directly informing Nigeria, President Buhari let out the information in an interview with the CNN in London some days ago that many of the killers are indeed Libyans, elements from the highly trained and well-armed private militia of late President Ghadafi of Libya, most of whom fled south into West Africa after the fall of Ghadafi. Nigerians at home and abroad are wondering and asking, why did President Buhari not give this very important information at home and to his country? Why has he not done so even days after his London CNN interview? Why?

    Is President Buhari aware of the implications of that information to the CNN? Can’t he and his officials see that our president has said that foreign militia elements entered our country – invaded our country – and are killing people at will across our country, and our government has done, and is doing, nothing about it?

    How is it that they cannot see that a full statement – a full explanation of all circumstances of this crisis – has long been due from the President of Nigeria? Are we to live with the disturbing surrender to the fact that such a statement will never come from our president?

    The effect of this whole shady handling of this crisis is being reinforced daily by the kinds of statements emanating from significant Fulani citizens. Since these significant citizens know that foreign militiamen have been involved in the attacks on various parts of Nigeria, why have some of them been repeatedly claiming that the attackers are all Fulani herdsmen, Nigerian Fulani citizens who, as citizens, are free to go anywhere in Nigeria? Why that huge piece of misinformation?

    Is it surprising then that Nigerians are now increasingly coming to the belief that some very major, some extraordinary, objectives underpin this whole development. Many Nigerians are asking openly in the media whether this is not a heightened phase of the old Hausa-Fulani efforts to establish their sole and perpetual control over Nigeria, or to forcibly Islamize the whole of Nigeria. That is, have some in the Arewa North elite now gone so far as to recruit and bring into Nigeria Ghadafi’s uprooted private army, to hide among Fulani herdsmen, and to masquerade as Fulani herdsmen, for the purpose of intimidating the rest of Nigeria into some sort of surrender?

    Inevitably, over-arching the whole atmosphere of fears and suspicions generated in this crisis is its impact on the Buhari presidency. If President Buhari does not hurry to come open before the people of Nigeria, to give them full and ascertainable details about what is happening in their country, and to announce and convincingly follow up with plans to rid Nigeria of this terrible threat, his whole presidency could be doomed. Already, he must be aware that his stock has been falling gradually. Even his anti-corruption war, which started with a great deal of excitement and support, is losing enthusiasm and support as this Fulani herdsmen crisis grows bigger and bigger. It would be a great pity to see Buhari lose his once   considerable political capital over this squalid issue. It would be a greater pity to see Nigeria fall over it.

  • Taming the herdsmen terror

    Since it returned to democratic rule in 1999, Nigeria has been grappling with numerous challenges, which, no doubt, are tearing the country apart and making its future to look uncertain. It is no longer news that the reign of terror in the Northeast has waned drastically, with the successful military campaign to crush insurgent elements.

    While the nation is coming out of the ruinous battle with Boko Haram insurgency, the North-Central axis has been besieged by murderous herdsmen. Farmers in states, such as Nassarawa, Plateau, Kogi, Kwara and Benue have suffered great losses in resources and lives as herdsmen bearing lethal weapons invaded their communities.

    The story of herdsmen killing farmers and residents of far-flung villages is not a pleasant one to tell.

    It is a story that has left a trail of agony and pain in all the communities the killer herdsmen have stormed. Newspaper pages have been awash with stories of how communities were sacked and destroyed by gun-bearing nomads whose only job is to feed their cows in other people’s farmland. Dreams have been cut short. Happy mothers have turned widows, children became orphans and men lost their family members.

    With these gory tales, it is safe to say that gone are the days when herdsmen were seen as harmless rovers. It is now seemed the fear of herdsmen is the beginning of wisdom. We cannot afford to not see them as threat to national security. The truth is that, until we identify first that there is a problem, we cannot solve a problem.

    Unfortunately, in spite of the devastating destruction perpetrated by herdsmen, the government is still treating the issue with kid glove and telling Nigerians not to worry. But, this is the time to nip the threat in the bud.

    To know that the killer herdsmen, who massacred people in Agatu community of Benue State and other communities still roam about freely with their cattle, doesn’t speak well for the nation. Is there no justice for the innocent people whose throats were slit open by the criminals? Is there no comfort for their family members still living? Times are hard, yet farmlands are being destroyed by cattle. We must not these herdsmen destroy our country.

    Herdsmen now carry sophisticated weapons beyond their smooth sticks and appear to be more interested in killing people than looking for an open field for grazing. I look at the little children, who cannot go to school any longer and being rudely deprived of adolescent innocence. Their sins are that, they happen to be born on far-flung settlements where some people prefer to feed their cattle.

    I look at the women who have become widows and who now must bring up their children without paternal support. I look at families displaced, humiliated, defeated, hopeless and disorganised. I look at communities traumatised by the senseless herdsmen invasion. I look at images of human beings whose throats were slit open like ram. I look at human bodies lumped like sardine. These were people we may have met in the bus, in the market.

    They lived as we do, until the herdsmen mowed them down. People of the villages of Borno to the hinterland of Benue and Kogi have been victims. We seem to be cursed with an uncommon assemblage of blood-thirsty, conscienceless men and women, in and out of power.

    The international community must not wait for another Rwanda to happen in Africa. International Criminal Court should begin investigation of these crimes being committed in Nigeria. Let every voice of Jacob and hand of Esau involved in this crime be accorded its proper place, sooner than later, in the temple of justice.

     

    Emmanuel, 400-Level Zoology, UNILORINs

  • Military declares war on militants, criminal herdsmen 

    Military declares war on militants, criminal herdsmen 

    The Nigerian military Wednesday vowed to sustain its onslaught against Niger Delta militants, Boko Haram and criminal herdsmen across the country.

    The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin and Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Vice Admiral Ibok Ete-Ibas made this disclosure Wednesday at the International Maritime Conference organised by the Nigerian Navy  NN) as part of activities to celebrate its 60th anniversary.

    This is just as the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen. Tukur Buratai inaugurated six communication vans which are to be deployed to the various troubled areas across the country.

    Olonisakin stated that the military has stepped up its game against armed conflicts, warning those sabotaging pipelines to desist from it.

    Speaking to reporters after the conference, Ibas said the military was expanding its technical aspect of its surveillance to ensure the menace was contained.

    “We have made some inroads by ensuring that we are at least out there at sea especially when you consider that we have over 3000 creeks, rivers and actuaries and the navy has over the last 10 years been building its capacity to operate in the backwaters.

    “What we have for now might not be adequate but we are expanding the technical aspects of our surveillance to ensure that we adequately contain the menace,” said Ibas.

    Buratai who was in Lagos to inaugurate some buildings renovated by the 81 Division, Nigerian Army as well as address the troops as part of his maiden official visit to command also assured that the military was leaving nothing to chance in combating armed conflicts.

    He said: “We are still pursuing the terrorists and we will continue to do that. So far so good, as the troops are doing very well.

    “We are fighting the insurgents in the north east. We are also handling militants in the Niger Delta and combating the criminal elements disguising as herdsmen.

    “We will continue to operate the way we have been doing. We may not be able to divulge our strategy because it is an operational issue.”

  • Fayose: kill erring herdsmen, cows

    Fayose: kill erring herdsmen, cows

    Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose yesterday declared a war on herdsmen, who are unleashing terror in communities in the state.

    The governor urged the people to rise against the herdsmen and kill them to defend their lives, families and farmlands.

    Fayose visited Oke-Ako community in Ikole Local Government Area, where suspected herdsmen killed two residents and injured four others in a night attack on Friday.

    He was accompanied by Commissioner of Police, Etop James; Director of Department of State Services (DSS) Andrew Iorkay; Commandant of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps John Ikemefuna and traditional rulers led by the Elekole of Ikole-Ekiti, Oba Adewumi Fasiku.

    The community has become a ghost town as many residents have fled.

    Soldiers from the 32 Artillery Regiment, Owena Barracks, Akure, the Ondo State capital, stood guard in strategic locations.

    The governor told local hunters, who mounted a guard of honour for him, to always be on guard as his administration would give them moral, financial and logistics support.

    Many of the community’s youths have been conscripted into the local hunters association.

    Fayose, who revealed that he has banned grazing in the state, pledged to follow up the ban with a bill to the House of Assembly to criminalise grazing.

    He said those interested in cattle farming should get their own private cattle ranch.

    The governor donated N2.5 million to the local hunters association and another N2.5 million to the families of the victims.

    Fayose promised to pay the hospital bills of injured victims.

    The governor promised to give the hunters a patrol vehicle fitted with communication gadgets.

    He said the people would not fold their arms and watch their lands ravaged and their wives raped.

    Fayose said: “From now on, my government has banned grazing in Ekiti State. If you want to graze, it should be in your local ranches.

    “Any cow seen around should be seized and it would henceforth become government property and their owners shall be prosecuted.

    “On no account should anybody come to sack our communities again, rise up against them.

    “Before any herdsmen kill you, kill them, before they rape your wives, kill them, and before they rape your children kill them.

    “I am giving you this order before they kill you kill them. You have to defend yourselves. Before they get you, you must get them down and take them out.

    “You should pursue them, go and search for them inside the forest. Anyone who comes to take your life, you must take them out.

    “We will not leave our lands for Fulani herdsmen and in a system where the leadership of the country looks the other way while our people are being killed, we will have no option than to defend ourselves.”

    The chairman of the community’s hunters association, Joseph Osasona, called on Fayose to support them with logistics, arms and finance.

    “We are appealing to the government to support us because without arms, we can do nothing.

    “We want the governor to allow us use guns because when the herdsmen came, they carried AK-47 rifles.

    “We can’t face them with dane guns. We are a registered association and we need the support of our government to protect our people,” Osasona said.

     

    ‘We’re taking him to court’

     

    Fulani have a right to move  freely and conduct their business across the nation’s  landscape, Alhaji Bello Ardo, former President of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders’ Association (MACBAN) has said.

    According to Ardo, a son-in-law of President Muhammadu Buhari, concerned Fulani leaders are contemplating a decisive legal challenge towards setting aside Governor Ayodele Fayose’s plans to prohibit herdsmen from rearing cattle in any part of Ekiti State.

    Affirming that Fulani leaders do not endorse any situation where individuals or groups take law in their hands, Ardo said the legal option is being considered, it would be optimally utilised to stop the plot against herdsmen doing their legitimate business.

    According to Ardo, there are areas in Ekiti and other parts of Nigeria that have been gazetted by the Federal Government as designated areas for cattle grazing.

    “He does not have the authority to ban cattle-grazing in Ekiti. Fulani will challenge it in court.

    “He does not have any right to ban designated grazing areas in Ekiti; there are grazing areas all over Nigeria and those grazing areas are gazetted by the Federal Government.

    “He does not have the right to say that Fulani cannot rear cattle through the forests; we are going to challenge this in court.

    “We are only just hearing the news but very soon, we will challenge it appropriately,” Ardo said.

     

     

  • Herdsmen attacks: Cattle feed factory to the rescue

    Herdsmen attacks: Cattle feed factory to the rescue

    A 50-tonne-capacity cattle feed mill in Yola, Adamawa State, may put an end to herdsmen-farmer clashes, reports TONY AKOWE

    The bloodbath has gone on for too long, and for no justifiable reason. From the North to the Middle-belt to the South, herdsmen’s clashes with crop farmers have severely decimated communities and in some cases almost wiped out some settlements. An end to that may be in sight, thanks to an ambitious feed-mill for cattle and other livestock in Abuja. After the large-scale attack in Agatu, Benue State and more recently in Enugu State, the federal government has intensified the search for a solution to the crises. Federal lawmakers have also been debating whether or not grazing reserves should be established across the country.

    The Rico Gado mill may well be the alternative to the grazing reserves, and an end to the clashes.

    Chairman of the Board of Directors of the firm Abubakar Ahmed Song also said that much, that the feed mill will cut down the clashes.

    He said this at the ground-breaking ceremony of the plant owned by former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar.

    Apart from producing poultry feeds of high quality, it is expected to produce small and large ruminant feeds, in addition to making the agriculture resuscitation programme of the government a reality, Song said.

    The former Vice President said  the plant, the second to be established, will have the capacity to produce 50 tonnes of feed of different brands per hour as against the 20 tons produced by the first facility also in Yola.

    Atiku said the feed factory was established to “help develop my town and my state and support the people. If we don’t do it, who would?”

    According to him, with the commissioning of the Yola plant in January 2015, with his foreign partners, they planned for the second plant.

    He said: “We went ahead because we had faith in our joint venture, and because we knew that we had an opportunity to change the way our agricultural sector works, an opportunity to change the way local communities view new business, and an opportunity to change the way we Nigerians look at our economy and agriculture. Today, the Yola feed mill is exactly what we had hoped for – an economically viable enterprise, and a catalyst for change.

    “The mill produces 20 tonnes per hour of carefully balanced and locally sourced quality fodder for a wide range of livestock, including poultry, cattle, goats, and horses. Specifically, the products are egg programme and broiler programme (for poultry), beef programme, calf grower, finisher and maintenance programme (for cattle), and small ruminants feeds (for sheep and goats). Our compound feed allows hundreds of producers to rear their livestock faster, to make them fatter, and to keep their animals in good health. Our feed is reducing the expanse of land required to feed cattle, and we hope that in the future, it will help defuse the conflicts between herders and farmers that have plagued many agrarian societies before us, and that are currently costing us too many lives and livelihoods, and threatening our nation’s future”.

    He said further that “a profitable feedstock mill is no magic fix that solves all of our problems. It is a small piece in a big puzzle that will make our agricultural sector more attractive and more productive. And it is a small piece in the even bigger puzzle that will get us over our addiction to fossil fuels, and over our reliance on rent-seeking enterprises. Put simply it will help us get over our dangerous addiction to oil revenues”.

    Speaking further, he said, “When we set up Rico Gado Nutrition Nigeria, we decided to invest in advanced state-of-the-art facilities because we wanted to be in a position to meet farmers’ needs and also have the capacity and flexibility to quickly respond to the needs of the market. We agreed that, if we wanted to succeed, we would have to offer our customers the best possible product at the best possible price, in the quickest possible time. And because we want farming to once more, become profitable. We are contributing to job creation, technology transfer and progressive change in farming culture. We believe there is a future in farming”.

    FCT Mohammed Musa Bello said Rico Gado will be a source of benefit and prosperity to the communities in the FCT through employment and the provision social services.

    He said: “We have enormous livestock population with enormous for the opportunity waiting for the company in her door steps. But the reality is that on a daily bases, we are no where competitive in the world because most agro products in this company are still being imported. In this project, our partnership will be three fold: one we already have on ground massive land ear marked as grazing reserve, we are willing to partner with you to create a portion out of that grazing reserve where you will put cattle padox to encourage them to stay there and provide them with all the necessary support and facilities like the provision of extension farmers on a pilot bases so that we see if after a few years, they can make a difference. The success of that endeavour will make it easier for us to replicate it in other parts of the country”

    Director of J.Silva group who are partnering with the former Vice President on the project, Joao Barreiro Silva disclosed that over 95% of work force and 100% of raw materials in the factory in Yola are sourced locally adding that these raw materials were tested by reputable laboratories and animal nutritionists in the European Union as well as Nigeria’s NAFDAC who certified their nutritional requirements for livestock.

    He said further that: “the Abuja factory is expected to be constructed within thirty-two weeks. Its capacity will more than double that of Yola thus, producing over one hundred (120) metric tons of assorted livestock feeds, per annum, meaning 50 tons per hour. This is in realization of the huge potential of the Nigerian economy, the largest in Africa.

    “In particular, Rico Gado recognized the flourishing economy of Nigeria which offers several opportunities in Agriculture. Despite lack of an update census of the livestock sub-sector in Nigeria, it is estimated there are about 20 million heads of cattle, 70 million goats/sheep and about 250 million poultry, derived mainly from local stock.

    “These figures made Nigeria by far the largest concentration of livestock in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, short supply and poor quality of animal feeds currently in the sub- sector result in high mortality rate, leading to low productivity and low rate of returns on investment in Nigeria. We are here to help change this and bring prosperity to local farmers.”