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Tag: Herdsmen

  • Tinubu’s godson, Sen. Adeola threatens to join kinsmen in self defence against Fulani herdsmen

    Tinubu’s godson, Sen. Adeola threatens to join kinsmen in self defence against Fulani herdsmen

    Senator Solomon Adeola (APC-Lagos West), who is one of the many godsons of national leader of All Progressives Congress (APC) Bola Tinubuhas threatened to join his kinsmen in self defence.

    The Senator, who made the threat in a statement in Abuja on Sunday, said his action in that direction is being fuelled by the inaction of both the Federal and Ogun State Governments to stop incessant attacks of communities in Yewaland by Fulani herdsmen.

    Adeola, in the statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Kayode Odunaro, said the latest of such attacks were the ones brazenly carried out in Yewa North, Imeko, Afon, Ipokia and Yewa South Local Government Areas two weeks ago, occasioning several deaths and destruction of property without the authorities stemming the tide.

    He said: “Let it be stated that as a representative of the people sworn to uphold the constitution and the laws of the land including the right to self defence, I will not hesitate to join my people in the defence of their rights to life, property and peaceful coexistence with others at the back of seeming failure of duly constituted authorities to defend such fundamental rights against anyone or forces.”

    Adeola declared further in the statement that having waited in vain for over two weeks for government’s positive action against what are clearly criminal acts of arson and murders, he is now calling on the Federal Government and the Ogun State Government to rise up to their constitutional obligations of protecting the lives and properties of all Nigerians, particularly the peace loving people of Yewaland in Ogun State.

    According to him: “Attacks occasioning several deaths and destruction of properties of law abiding Nigerians in several communities in Yewaland can no longer be glossed over.”

    Relevant authorities, he added, must rise up to the challenge, failure of which may make people in the affected communities to resort to self help.

    He said: “I recalled that at various occasions on the floor of the Senate I contributed to debates on the deteriorating security situation in different parts of the country and was always agitating for restructuring of the security architecture of the country.

    “I made a similar contribution to a Senate wide motion on general security only last week. Now something specific must be done urgently to stop the arson and killings in Yewaland by relevant authorities and security agencies.”

    Adeola noted that he is aware that the State Government set up a special committee on the recent ugly situation in Yewaland and elsewhere in the state, but stressed that the body needed to urgently turn in a workable report/solution to the Government to stem the spate of arson and killing against people in Yewaland.

  • ‘If you kill a herder, don’t go to sleep, we will revisit you’ – Miyetti Allah

    ‘If you kill a herder, don’t go to sleep, we will revisit you’ – Miyetti Allah

    ‘Ifyou kill a herder, don’t go and sleep, we will revisit you,” National Secretary of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Alhassan Saleh has said.

    Saleh added that nobody could evict herdsmen from the south, saying that they would resist such move.

    He also said nobody could stop herdsmen from foreign nation from entering Nigeria to graze their cows.

    He said, “Nobody has the right (to evict herdsmen). If you say you are going to evict us, we will resist eviction. We have been surviving in harsh environments; if we do not resist, we will be wiped out of the planet. If you kill a herder, don’t go and sleep, we will revisit you, and it’s not because we hate your tribe. People attack herders, and in one way or the other, herders have found a way to retaliate.”

    Saleh also defended the right of foreign herders to enter the country saying that they once lived in Nigeria before relocating to other countries.

     

    “All those who travelled to the Benin Republic and others are coming back home. All those saying they will bar foreign herders from entering Nigeria are just playing to the gallery because if they are aware of the ECOWAS Protocols, they would know they cannot chase them away.

    ”That is why the position of the Bauchi State Governor [Bala Mohammed] is the true position. You have no right to evict anybody from any part of the country.

    “Our number has increased recently because of the tension in Ghana and Benin republics. The ones in Benin Republic have integrated with the Yoruba in such a way that they speak the language. They were initially living in the South-West, and they are coming back,” Saleh told The Punch in an interview.

    He also said the eviction notice to herders to leave South West is merely propaganda.

    According to him, “They expected a reaction from us, maybe by way of attacking other ethnic nationalities. But that is wrong because the herders they are attacking are the innocent herders. Are the criminals representing anybody?

    “They are doing their criminal enterprise. Our own pain is that the people who are supposed to know are pretending as if they don’t know.”

  • Beyond a republic of herdsmen – Chidi Amuta

    Chidi Amuta

    By a curious subterfuge, cattle and their handlers have finally managed to conquercentre stage in our national attention and discourse. Our security agencies and nearly all state governors are now engrossed in some form of interrogation of the herders’ menace. A few weeks ago, all the governors of the South West states held an urgent unscheduled meeting.

    The herders’ menace was the only item on the agenda. Earlier this week, all the 19 governors of the northern states similarly converged mostly virtually on the same note. Similarly, few days ago, the National Assembly announced that on resumption, itwill join the raging cattle and herders debate. At the federal level, Ministers, nabobs of power and the usual Aso Rock chatter appliances are avoiding the long horns of the cattle and the sharp knives of their herders through all manner of creative verbal escapism.

    As a result, all manner of unexpected actors have come centre stage to lead the national conversation on insecurity. Some cattle breeders association called Miyetti Allah that no one heard of prior to the Buharipresidency has emerged from prehistoric obscurity into national prominence.

    That is where we are now, at the sorry juncture in our national descent into laughable oddity where the most important issue in national discourse is an epidemic of security discomfort caused by cattle and their herders. The herder as trouble maker is the latest iteration of Nigeria’s growing army of seasonal attention seekers. Suddenly, we are now divided on the basis of where people stand in relation to herders and their cattle and all the violence and mayhem they have unleashed on us all. A nation beset by a cocktail of frightening existential problems is sadly frozen on cattle herders and their criminal trail.

    Mind you, we are not discussing our epic inequality and mass poverty. We are not debating the total institutional decay in our system of governance. Our economists are struck dumb on our options of economic survival in the post-pandemic era. No clear strategy has been articulated by those paid to do so on how best to end an embarrassing spate of unprecedented insecurity. There are no serious panels and study groups examining options to remedy the desperate disrepair in our healthcare and education systems. Our university students have been locked out of campus for the better part of the last one year. Our medieval infrastructure is being tackled in fits and starts through a series of ‘patch patch’ contracts. Above all these, all we are now left with is this obsessive preoccupation with a peasant debate about cattle, their herders and the dangerous nuisance they have become.

    As a result, all manner of unexpected actors have come centre stage to lead the national conversation on insecurity. Some cattle breeders association called Miyetti Allah that no one heard of prior to the Buhari presidency has emerged from prehistoric obscurity into national prominence. It now has a voice that is at once political and geo strategic. It has graduated from a special interest association of cattle traders into a faction of the geo -ethnic scramble for national pre-eminence. They now attractnewspaper front page headlines. Miyetti Allah leaders now sit at table with state governors to deliberate not just on how best to escort their cattle to markets across the country but on the security of states and the nation.

    As matters stand now, we might go into the 2023 election season with cattle and their herders as well as the nationwide insecurity they have generated as the major public issue for campaigns. And if care is not taken, the electoral outcomes of key contests in 2023 may in fact be influenced, if not determined,by the positions of key politicians on herdsmen, their wares and violent criminal ways. This is the tragic state of Nigeria’s march into modernity in 2021: literally a Federal Republic of cattle rearers with citizens as mere subjects and victims! It may also be part of the unintended legacy of this season of political and cultural regression.

    May be it is a fortuitous accident born of prolonged tolerance. Suddenly, the harmless itinerant herdsmen that have long been part of our ancient cattle rearing and transportation culture have made a dangerous detour into unfamiliar and dangerous departments. They have entered a competition for pre-eminence as agents of violent criminality. Today, if the police were to rank the principal suspects in major crimes involving the misuse of firearms all over the country in recent months, the activities of herdsmen would occupy a position somewhere towards the top of the scale. From innocently escorting their cattle across distances to grazing fields and markets throughout the country, herdsmen have diversified into criminal enterprises ranging from transactional kidnapping, armed robbery, serial rape and wanton destruction of farmland. Supposed herdsmen are killing people on an industrial scale, burning people’s houses on their grazing route communities, razing whole communities and spreading hate and instability even in places that had hosted them for decades.

    Regrettably, the matter has been gravelymismanaged. As a consequence, we may be gradually headed for a sad place. Quit notices along ethnic lines are being recklessly issuedby both governors and sundry ethnic mob leaders. In some cases, forceful evictions of fellow Nigerians is being encouraged by otherwise responsible citizens. Ethnic mob leaders have been officially enabled and conferred with a new impetus and fresh importance. Threats of reprisals and the free exchange of abuse and incendiary rhetoric by all manner of sectional champions have worsened a bad situation. Political adventurism of the sort that thrives in Nigeria has found a fertile climate and abundant raw material. It is a free for all for different tribes of mischief merchants and reckless power opportunists.

    Sadly, both the governments’ handling of the herdsmen matter and the general public discourse on it have been full of political heat and little common sense or enlightenment. Let us make no mistake about it. The major political origins of the herdsmen matter isrooted in the origins and nativity of the Buhari presidency. The president is himself a known cattle farmer with a small ranch in Daura. No one knows whether his investment in this enterprise includes ownership of a few itinerant herders and their flock among the many squads roaming the length and breadth of Nigeria. There is a widely canvassed notion by Miyetti Allah that the president may in fact be one of their key patrons. In addition, the president’s Fulani nativity is not disguised.

    While no one can point precisely at too many overtly pro -Fulani statements by Mr. Buhari, his overtly provincial nepotism and nativism indicate a narrow definition of who he considers ‘his people’. Never mind the political correctness of ‘I belong to all…”Therefore, a great deal of the debate on the herders menace is conditioned by a certainsensitivity to the president’s stake, body language and ecological location in the matter. Understandably, the positions of major political stakeholders on the herders crisis range from studied silence, deliberate obfuscation to studied indifference and disguised support clothed in political double speak.

    Predictably, politics, emotions and primordial sentiments have been allowed to mix andflood the scene thereby clouding sensiblepolicy discourse. Politicians are playing up the north-south divide. Sectional minded people are blaming the matter on a silly Fulani plot to overrun the rest of the country for whatever reason. Some regionalists are even using the herdsmen aberration to advance the raging arguments for a restructuring and balkanization of the country into insular enclaves literally fenced off from the excesses of troublesome neighbours. In the process, the rationality and policy clarity that ought to drive public debate on a matter of grave national importance is nowhere in evidence.

    Stripped of political undertones and diversionary manoeuvers, however, I see the herdsmen menace as a function of three elements that can be separated and decisively dealt with by any serious minded government. These are, first, an urgent need to modernize our cattle industry in a manner that phases out migratory grazing. Next is the urgent need to treat crimes by herdsmen as simply crimes and therefore subject them to the same law enforcement and criminal justice regimes to which other criminals are subject. Third is to face the challenges of diversity management as a principle of governance in a diverse polity.

    We need to face a reality. The present practice of migratory cattle grazing across long distances and vast expanses has expired. Itbelongs to an ancient stage in the development of human societies and cattle farming. Strictly speaking, we are confronted with a crisis of regulation in a sector of the agricultural industry. Cattle rearing and breeding are business undertakings mostly by private individuals. It requires appropriate regulation to protect the larger public from the abuses to which it, like any other form of business, can be subject. When a form of business becomes stuck in a mode of production that lags behind the current state of best practices in its industry, it is overdue for oversight intervention. Part of the regulatoryresponsibility of government is to compel practitioners in that industry to embrace more modern and less disruptive methods. Worse still, if the reluctance to modernize poses a threat to public good and safety, it is time to phase out or outrightly proscribe the practice of that industry in its present form.

    Even from point of view of profitability of a form of business, the present primitive grazing of disease riddled and underweight cattle across thousands of kilometers in the country cannot guarantee a healthy meat supply nor be a profitable business proposition for the cattle owners. The paltry return on investment for cattle owners and the general low wages of the herders may be a factor in making violent crime attractive for them in quest of more decent incomes.

    For a country that parades itself as hungry for competitiveness in agriculture, the present subsistence peasant stage of our cattle industry ought to bring nothing but shame. On the global scale of cattle production, Nigeria ranks abysmally low.

    For the avoidance of doubt, there is no relationship between productive cattle farming and the ancient nomadism we seem stuck to. Most modern societies have since left that behind. Even Nigeria has largely turned its back on antiquated cultures but only clings to some aspects when it is politically convenient. Those in Abuja and the state capitals arguing in favour of retaining open grazing are themselves clutching sophisticated smart phones, driving state of the art cars and living in Hollywood grade homes with touch screen everything. But they conveniently want to consign millions of our countrymen to a pre-Medieval mode of agricultural production that imprisons them in congenital wandering and unrelieved poverty.

    The nations with the largest cattle inventoriesand which produce most of the world’s meat stock have no migratory grazing. According to FAO figures on World Cattle Inventory, the top six countries are Brazil (212 million), India (190 million), China (114 million), United States (90 million), Ethiopia (54 million) and Argentina (51 million). Nigeria has only 20 million heads of mostly disease riddled, emaciated cattle and ranks 14th in the global inventory, accounting for a miserable 1.36% of the global number. But we lead the world in the number of violent crimes attributed to cale herdsmen. As a matter of fact, the other leading cattle producers have no nomads or herdsmen at all. Has anyone heard of Indian, Chinese or American nomads killing people and burning houses?

    Our challenge is therefore one of modernization of cattle production as a sub set of our overall agricultural production strategy. Happily, Mr. Buhari has relentlessly harped on agriculture as focal to his agenda. Let us then insist that within the next 24 months, it will become criminal to be found roaming Nigeria with cattle. In return, the Central Bank should dedicate funds to encourage settled cattle farming through the establishment of ranches and large-scale cattle farms. The northern states should in fact compete as to who achieves 100% settled cattle farming fastest in return for a federal grant. I guess the settled cattle farms should boast of modern amenities and would create massive employment opportunities both for re-trained herdsmen and other unemployed young Nigerians.

    On the matter of criminality and law and order, the matter is simpler. Herdsmen who veer into criminal undertakings pose only a challenge of crime control and law enforcement.

    …

  • Three killed as suspected herdsmen storm Ogun community

    Three killed as suspected herdsmen storm Ogun community

    Unknown number of herdsmen on Friday night invaded Igbooro, Oja-Odan in the Yewa-North Local Government area of Ogun State, killing three and injuring two villagers.

    The prowling herdsmen reportedly invaded the village, closed to Eggua in Oja-Odan around 11 pm on Friday, shot extensively, and set ablaze three houses and storehouses in the village.

    A mother and her child were among the three persons killed in their huts while two persons were said to be in critical conditions after they were shot by the herdsmen.

    It was also learnt that many people, including children, sustained varying degrees of injuries.

    The attack came barely 24 hours after five persons were killed in Owode Ketu, Ogun State.

    Confirming the sad incident, Baale of Igbooro, Abidemi Akorede, said he had counted three corpses as of the time of speaking.

    Akorede said two villagers, a man, and a woman have been rushed to a nearby hospital after they sustained gunshots injuries.

    The village head said, “Some Fulani herdsmen invaded our village last night. As they arrived, they set ablaze some houses and started shooting sporadically, they macheted a child to death where he hid.

    “They hacked a mother and her child to death. I have counted three corpses, two have been rushed to the hospital, they are in critical condition after they were shot.

    “They did not come with their cattle for grazing. They just stormed the village, killed people, and destroyed a lot of property.

    “Three houses were set ablaze and one commercial bus. Silos were also burnt with the grains, he told Punch

     

  • Ogun begins recruitment of Amotekun operatives as herdsmen crisis persists

    Ogun begins recruitment of Amotekun operatives as herdsmen crisis persists

    The Ogun State Government has commenced the recruitment of Amotekun operatives to curb incessant attacks and killings by herdsmen in some parts of the state.

    In a notice on Thursday, the government asked qualified individuals interested in joining the State Security Network to submit their applications.

    It also called on local vigilantes, hunters, and ex-servicemen to be members of the corps, noting that the security outfit would fortify the existing security architecture.

    “The Ogun State Government welcomes applications from qualified individuals interested in joining the Ogun State Security Network (AMOTEKUN Corps),” the government said on Friday via Twitter.

    “Interested applicants are advised to: Apply on the Job Portal http://jobs.ogunstate.gov.ng, Fill both the online and downloaded application forms, and submit two(2) copies of the downloaded form at the Office of the Commander, Ogun State Community, Social Orientation and Safety Corps (So-Safe Corps).

    “Alternatively, interested candidates can visit the Office of the Commander, Ogun State Community, Social Orientation and Safety Corps (So-Safe Corps), Former Ministry of Works, Oke Ilewo, Abeokuta to pick up the application form. Multiple applications would be disqualified. Application closes on Friday 19th February 2021.”

    Governments of Oyo, Ekiti, Ogun, Lagos, Osun, Ondo had last year agreed to float the Western Nigeria Security Network codenamed Amotekun to address the security challenges confronting the region.

    The Amotekun Corps had also got the constitutional backing of the six-state assemblies in the region.

    While Ondo, Oyo and Ekiti states have since commenced the operations of the security outfit, governments of Osun, Ogun and Lagos had yet to begin activities.

  • BREAKING: Herdsmen kill 2 in Ondo State, set Amotekun vehicle ablaze

    BREAKING: Herdsmen kill 2 in Ondo State, set Amotekun vehicle ablaze

    Suspected herdsmen have attacked Sanusi Village in Owo Local Government Area of Ondo State and killed a farmer and a member of a local vigilante group.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the Public Relations Officer of the Amotekun Corps in Ondo, Mr Adebayo Ayeni confirmed the incident on Friday

    In a statement Mr Ayeni stated that the incident happened on Thursday and that the herdsmen also went into the village where an Amotekun vehicle was parked and set it ablaze.

    “Men of Ondo State Security Network Agency, have again made another major breakthrough in their strive to get rid of criminal elements in Ondo State.

    “This cartel was piling up arms and ammunition to invade the entire state, while masquerading as herders and using the forest as kidnappers den for negotiation and ransom, illegal mining activities and cultivation of Indian hemps.

    “The security outfits in conjunction with the police, the army and other security agencies in the state however smoked them out of the forest, after it was discovered that the bandits had killed a farmer and a member of the vigilante group in the area.

    “They also went to the village where an Amotekun vehicle was parked and set it ablaze,” Ayeni stated.

  • Insecurity: Herdsmen will drag Nigeria into another civil war if you don’t act fast, Ortom writes Buhari [Full Letter]

    Insecurity: Herdsmen will drag Nigeria into another civil war if you don’t act fast, Ortom writes Buhari [Full Letter]

    Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to act swiftly before the killer herdsmen drag the nation into another civil war.

    In a letter to the president, Governor Ortom said the security challenges faced by the country have assumed new dimensions where the now emboldened assailants and armed herdsmen daringly enforce their will on legitimate owners and occupants of ancestral lands.

    According to the governor, there are many areas of concern over the Federal Government’s actions and inactions, including the widely discussed concern over inequalities in key appointments.

    Ortom was of the opinion that the seemingly nepotistic appointments have reinforced the perception that the Buhari-led administration is not fair and just to all Nigerians.

    The governor while asserting that he is a major stakeholder in the Nigeria project, said he has a responsibility to raise major concerns regarding insecurity and to offer some recommendations towards addressing them.

    As part of his recommendation on how to deal with the herdsmen crisis and insecurity in general, Governor Ortom asked the Federal Government to develop a National Ranching Policy in line with global best practice in animal husbandry.

    He further asked President Buhari to direct the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies to enforce Prohibition of Open Grazing Laws passed by various States of the federation.

    Read the governor’s letter below:

    His Excellency Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR President
    Federal Republic of Nigeria State House
    Abuja

    APPEAL TO ACT BEFORE HERDSMEN DRAG NIGERIA INTO A CIVIL WAR

    It is my honour and privilege to extend warm compliments of the New Year to Your Excellency on behalf of myself, the Government and good people of Benue State.

    2. As a State, we welcome and appreciate the establishment of three Federal educational institutions in Benue State namely: Federal University of Health Sciences, Federal College of Education and a Federal Polytechnic.

    3. We are also thankful for the various appointments given Benue sons and daughters. We expect more of such strategic projects and appointments more so given the support you have received from our Government and the people of the State. We acknowledge and appreciate the intervention which your Administration made as Bailout to States during the first recession, although Benue is yet to receive the second Tranche which you approved and referred to the Federal Ministry of Finance to verify and pay two years ago and which Kogi State received in 2019.

    4. Your Excellency, we especially want to commend you for responding to my earlier appeal to deploy, upgrade and retain Military Operations in the State. These Operations, particularly Operation Whirl Stroke, working in collaboration with other Security Agencies, have contributed to relative peace in several parts of the State even though the challenges are not yet over.

    5. Mr. President, we are not oblivious of the challenges that the country has faced in the life of your Administration. These include two recessions, the COVID-19 global pandemic and the unprecedented nationwide security challenges resulting into the largest loss of lives and property since the Civil War. These security challenges especially have unsettled the country economically, socially and politically.

    6. Your Excellency, these security challenges have assumed new dimensions where the now emboldened assailants and armed herdsmen daringly enforce their will on legitimate owners and occupants of ancestral lands. There are many areas of concern over the Federal Government’s actions and inactions, including the widely discussed concern over inequalities in key appointments. These have reinforced the perception that the Administration is not fair and just to all Nigerians.

    7. Mr. President, please recall my earlier letters drawing your attention to the murderous activities of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore and other armed Fulani socio-cultural groups and their leaders who publicly and brazenly claimed responsibility for the killings and destruction of property across States of the country. These groups and their leaders have also boasted that Nigeria belongs exclusively to them. The letters alerted you on several challenges and called for the arrest and prosecution of the leaders and proscription of the organizations in question. The letters are as follows:
    (i) Incessant Violent Attacks on Benue Farmers in Benue State by Armed Herdsmen Ref. No. AI/68/T.I/64 dated 7th June 2017.

    (ii) Alleged Planned Attack by Fulani Herdsmen on Benue State and the need to Support the Anti-Open Grazing Law Ref. No. AI/68/I/149 on 16th October, 2017.
    (iii) Violent Attacks on Communities in Benue State by Armed Fulani Herdsmen Ref. No. AI/68/I/174 dated 2nd January, 2018.
    (iv) Fresh Planned Attacks by Fulani Herdsmen on Benue people
    Ref. No. AI/68/I/189 dated 18th January, 2018.

    8. We are alarmed that rather than being censured, these leaders and organizations have been emboldened and intensified their atrocities. They have received encouragement in the process through various actions and inactions by the Federal Government, including the following:
    (i) Open Visa Policy which has promoted unprecedented influx of Fulani herdsmen carrying sophisticated and prohibited weapons into Nigeria;
    (ii) Non-compliance with the ECOWAS protocol on transhumance;
    (iii) Swift condemnation of any perceived or real threats on Fulani while maintaining silence over their atrocities and admonishing victimized host communities to accommodate their oppressors and learn to live at peace with them;
    (iv) The failure to arrest, disarm and prosecute armed herdsmen and Fulani militia;
    (v) Disarming other Nigerians who have licensed weapons;
    (vi)Continuation of open grazing and support for grazing reserves, stock routes, cattle colony and Ruga despite nationwide acknowledgement that this practice is unviable; and that ranching is the global best practice for livestock production;
    (vii)The non-implementation of the National Livestock Transformation Plan despite its approval by the National Economic Council and its acceptance by pilot States.

    9. This ugly situation has caused devastation across the country. In Benue State, 19 out of 23 Local Government Areas have been affected by attacks by Fulani herdsmen leading to loss of lives, destruction of property and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Benue people who are now living in Internally Displaced Persons Camps and host communities across the State. The total number of Internally Displaced Persons currently in the Camps in Benue State is 483,692 persons.

    10. Returning these Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their ancestral homes has been impossible as herdsmen continue to attack, kill, maim and rape those who return. The Federal Government is also yet to redeem the pledge made on 15th May, 2018 by Vice President Prof. Yemi Osibanjo to contribute N10Billion to Benue State towards the reconstruction, rehabilitation, reintegration and resettlement of displaced persons. The failure of the IDPs to return to their ancestral homes to resume normal farming activities, together with the impact of climate change, has posed a serious threat to national food security, as evidenced by rising food prices.

    11. Sir, we all remember the wise counsel of Nigeria’s former Permanent Representative to the United Nations, the late Alhaji Maitama Sule, when Northern Leaders Forum visited you as the President-Elect in 2015. He said, inter alia “…With justice, you can rule Nigeria well. Justice is the key. If you do justice to all and sundry, and I say all and sundry. If you’re going to judge between people, do justice irrespective of their tribe, religion or even political inclination. Justice must be done to whosoever deserves it.”

    12. Mr. President, this call for justice is the heart cry of every patriotic Nigerian. It is not a call against the Fulani race or any other ethnic group, but a call to make Nigeria work for every Nigerian in line with the Oath of Office we took as leaders and your pledge to be a President for all Nigerians and to be for everybody and for nobody. Unfortunately, you seem to be tilting towards the Fulani at the expense of other nationalists.

    13. Many citizens including patriotic Fulanis like Dr. Nura Alkali are alarmed at this tilt and the boast of Miyetti Allah that Nigeria is the heritage of the Fulani of the whole world. These citizens continue to condemn the atrocities of the Fulani across the country while also calling on the Federal Government to end these atrocities by withdrawing from their one-sided sympathy for herdsmen.

    14. Only recently, the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, added his voice in this regard. He acknowledged that seven or eight out of every 10 kidnappers arrested in Nigeria are Fulani. This is not a good testimony. More so, the consequences this image has cast on the Fulani tribe should be corrected now.

    15. These concerns were reiterated by the Nigerian Tribune Editorial of January 25, 2021:
    “it has become an established pattern for his Presidency to swiftly intervene on issues bordering on the atrocities of Fulani herdsmen in the country, acting as their publicist in a fashion that assails the sensibility of other Nigerians, and oftentimes unabashedly descending into the arena and polarising the country along ethnic and regional lines. This sordid trend is inimical to confidence building, genuine bonding and cohesion of citizens in a multi-ethnic, multi- cultural and multi-religious society and it is really concerning, and perilously so, that such vital sensitivities are being discounted at the highest level of governance in the land. From his utterances and actions, it is clear that Muhammadu Buhari is not ready to be the President of all Nigerians.”

    16. It is important to point out that these are not sentiments directed against Fulanis who are indigenous to Nigeria and have been living at peace with other Nigerians. Testimonies abound in that regard. For example, my wife and I were accommodated by a Fulani man while in school at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Till date, we are still very good family friends and he visits me occasionally in Benue. This point underscores the pain we all have had to go through to understand the tragedy where armed herdsmen from Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Cameroon and other neighbouring countries are pushing the whole country to the precipice. While addressing the Nigerian community on Tuesday 19th April 2019 in Dubai, You also blamed these foreign herdsmen for the attacks on Nigeria.

    17. Mr. President, as a major stakeholder in the Nigeria project, I have a responsibility to raise these major concerns and to offer some recommendations towards addressing them.
    (i) The Federal Government should develop a National Ranching Policy in line with global best practice in animal husbandry. Today, open grazing is extinct in most countries of the world. In Europe, America, Asia and in many countries in Africa, pastoralism has long given way to ranching. How can Nigeria then still be battling with a problem of pastoralism that in other countries has been solved over a century ago? According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), India has 303 million cattle, Brazil, 226 million, China, 100 million, USA, 93 million, Argentina, 53 million and Australia 27 million. All these countries ranch their animals. Nigeria has less than 20 million cattle which could also be easily ranched. Unfortunately, the cows are allowed to either roam the streets freely or encroach on people’s farms and other investments. A Ranching policy in Nigeria will provide avenue for both crop farmers and those involved in animal husbandry to increase production using modern technology. This is the only way out of ending farmers/herders conflict;
    (ii) Direct the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies to enforce Prohibition of Open Grazing Laws passed by various States of the federation;
    (iii) Abolish Open Visa policy and direct relevant security agencies to ensure full compliance with the ECOWAS Protocol on Transhumance;
    (iv) The Federal Government should immediately pay compensation to families killed and those whose properties were destroyed by the herdsmen in various communities across the country;
    (v) Condemn the atrocities perpetrated by armed herdsmen; arrest and prosecute the leadership of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore and other Fulani Socio-cultural groups who have consistently admitted to the wanton killings and destruction of communities across the country. These include Husaini Yusuf Bosso (National Vice President of Miyetti Allah Cattle

    Herders Association), Badu Salisu Ahmadu and Umar Amir Shehu, (President and Secretary of Fulani Nationality Movement), Alhaji Abdullahi Bello Bodejo and Engr. Saleh Alhassan (President and Secretary of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore) along with their sponsors;
    (vi) Proscribe Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Fulani Nationality Movement, Fulani Herders Association and other violent Fulani extremist groups, as was done in the case of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB), given that the Global Terrorism Index ranks Fulani militia as the fourth deadliest terrorist group in the world;
    (vii) LicenseLaw-abidingNigerianstocarryweaponsinself-defence;
    (viii) Ensure justice, fairness and equity in all issues relating to public safety and security;
    (ix)
    Support the resettlement and rehabilitation of Internally Displaced Persons as a result of herdsmen atrocities in all States of the country.

    18. In conclusion, Your Excellency, I am writing to you as a patriot who is concerned about your reputation and the fate of our dear country. I am imploring you once again to rise to the challenges of these times to avert the country’s drift to anarchy and disintegration, a situation that sycophants and praise-singers might be unwittingly shielding from you. In 2015, Nigerians enthusiastically welcomed your return as a leader with a reputation for uprightness, fair-mindedness and integrity. The current situation is raising doubts in the minds of many Nigerians who had believed in you. Mr. President, your compatriots are looking up to you to act fast to redress the situation.
    I thank you most sincerely for your kind attention. Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    SAMUEL ORTOM
    Governor

  • Disturbing video: Angry mob lynches Fulani herdsmen caught with firearms in Edo [Graphic]

    Disturbing video: Angry mob lynches Fulani herdsmen caught with firearms in Edo [Graphic]

    An angry mob in Edo reportedly lynched some Fulani herdsmen who were allegedly intercepted with firearms and assorted charms within the state.

    In an undated viral video seen by TheNewsGuru (TNG), the five herdsmen were ordered to sit on the ground and interrogated by the angry youths who displayed the firearms, charms and other weapons allegedly found on them.

    Meanwhile, the Sarkin Hausawa of Edo, Alhaji Adamu Isa, on Thursday, reacted on the report of the alleged killings.

    Isa made the disclosure shortly after a closed-door meeting with Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo at Government House, Benin.

    He said “We discussed the issue of banditry, herders and farmers’ crisis and other security challenges and lies being posted on the social media that some Arewa members were being killed in Edo.

    “So, as far as I am concerned, as the Sarkin Hausa of Benin, who is the head of all the Arewa communities in Edo, I have not gotten facts about this story been spread on social media. As far as we are concerned in Edo, Edo is a peace-loving place,” he said.

  • Nigeria police lied, cattle, herders invaded my home – Soyinka

    Nigeria police lied, cattle, herders invaded my home – Soyinka

    The Nigerian police lied when it said only one cow strayed into the compound of the Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, the professor has said.

    Mr Soyinka, in a statement entitled ‘Mad Cows and even madder narratives’ sent to newsmen, narrated how the cattle invaded his home, how they were removed and how the police took time to arrive the scene after they were invited.

    I thoroughly resent the police version which suggests that the cows never invaded my home: home is not just a building; it includes its grounds.

    The police in Ogun had claimed in a statement Tuesday that only one cow stayed into Mr Soyinka’s compound.

    “The entire place was inspected by the DPO and it was established that it was just a case of stray cow as nothing was damaged or tampered with,” the police said.

    Mr Soyinka has now said that the narrative of the police is false.

    “I thoroughly resent the police version which suggests that the cows never invaded my home: home is not just a building; it includes its grounds. And it was not a stray cow, or two or three. It was a herd – we have photos, so why the lie? It is so unnecessary, unprofessional and suspiciously compromised,” Mr Soyinka wrote.

    Read Mr Soyinka’s full statement below.

    MAD COWS AND EVEN MADDER NARRATIVES

    The most distressful aspect of my recent interaction with cows and herders is that it has created a most unwanted distraction from the ongoing life and death Nigerian narrative. One has to take time off to deal with distortions and Fake versions, while students are being reportedly waylaid and killed and/or kidnapped in Ondo and farmers are being slaughtered in my own state. In short, the killings continue even as panels are being launched to enquire into immediate past human violations. For those who truly seek details of the Ijegba incident, I hereby affirm that I was never physically attacked, neither did I attack any cows. The cows and herders did however attack my property – and not for the first time.

    The police need to be very, very careful, learn to be straightforward with public information. Failure to adhere to that obvious, basic form of conduct means that the public will lose total confidence in security agencies and constantly bypass them in times of civic unrest, no matter how trivial or deadly. How on earth could the police claim that my property was not invaded by cattle? It was. My groundsmen knew the drill and commenced the process of expelling them. Fortunately, I was then driving out and was able to lend a hand by vehicle maneuvering. Both cattle and herdsmen were flushed out of my property.

    Once they were outside the gates, I came down from the vehicle and beckoned the herdsmen to come over. At first, they pretended not to understand, then, as I approached, fled into the bush. We thereupon “arrested” the cows, confining them to the roadside, while I sent my groundsman, Taiye, to the police to come and take over. Since they took rather long in responding, I summoned a replacement and proceeded to the police station. On the way, we met a detachment, turned round, and together we returned to the scene of crime. The police wanted to commence combing the bush for the fugitives but I stopped them – what was the point? Keep the cows, I advised, and the owner will show up. Of course, that owner eventually did.

    I thoroughly resent the police version which suggests that the cows never invaded my home: home is not just a building; it includes its grounds. And it was not a stray cow, or two or three. It was a herd – we have photos, so why the lie? It is so unnecessary, unprofessional and suspiciously compromised. The police suggest that I have nothing better to do than to go accosting cows on the public road – to what end? If the police demand proof, the next time such an invasion takes place, I warn that there will be no lack for cadaver affirmation and the police will be officially invited to join in the ensuing suya feast. So please, let us get serious!

    Getting serious means seeking with a sense of urgency, ways of terminating mayhem, impunity, and the homicidal culture being imposed on us through some near cultic business minority who just happen to trade in cattle. It means not giving up on peaceful solutions, but also being prepared for the worst. Those of my line of thought have been working on various ways of sensitizing the nation to the very real and imminent danger issuing from this cattle aberration. The menace, I repeat, challenges us as a cohesive entity and as communities of free individuals, committed to the dignity of existence. Cattle imperialism under any guise is an obscenity to humanity. So let me serve notice that we are about to commence a process of public sensitization; we hope even the police will join hands with the agenda as it progresses.

    A special practical plea: now that the railways are being resurrected, let us make cattle wagons a priority. I grew up with the regular sight of those practical conveyances. It is time to bring them back.

    Wole SOYINKA

    ARI.

    Kemta Housing Estate

  • Alleged invasion: Herdsmen didn’t attack Soyinka, they only violated his compound

    Alleged invasion: Herdsmen didn’t attack Soyinka, they only violated his compound

    Professor Wole Soyinka’s first son, Dr Olaokun Soyinka and Soyinka’s friend and protege, Dr Olu Agunloye have debunked the trending story that the Nobel Laureate was attacked by herdsmen in Abeokuta.

    Agunloye said: “The trending story that herdsmen went to attack Prof Wole Soyinka in his house in Abeokuta is not true. Herdsmen did not break into his house. There were no attacks and no attempts to attack the Nobel Laureate.

    “What happened was that herdsmen led their cattle to graze in Prof Soyinka’s unfenced compound again yesterday despite his strong warnings to the herdsmen.

    “Prof Soyinka has been living in the forest at the outskirt of Abeokuta in Area designated as GRA since late 1980s. However, in recent times cattle herders have desecrated the grounds of Professor Soyinka’s compound by flooding it with cows. The Professor summoned the herdsmen and sternly warned them to stop the ugly practice. He told them in very clear terms that it was unacceptable.

    “However, the herdsmen broke the rules yesterday thinking that Prof Soyinka was not home. When the Prof accosted them, they fled into the bush leaving their cows behind. Prof Soyinka reported the incident to the Police which later arrested the herdsmen and their cows.

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    “We can say categorically that Prof Soyinka and his house were not physically attacked but his compound was violated by recalcitrant herdsmen who wanted to turn his compound to a grazing field. Prof Soyinka and his family remain okay in their Abeokuta home’.

    Olaokun Soyinka, who issued an earlier rebuttal also said:

    “I have confirmed that while cows did stray onto his land yesterday, there has been no attack, no violence and no attempt to enter the house.

    “Kindly debunk this information where you can.

    “We do not need confusion added to the already tense situation in the country”.

    Olaokun particularly unveiled the original vector of the story, Koiki Media who took the videos.

    READ ALSO Suspected herdsmen strike two dead in Edo

    He appealed to the platform to stop “spreading such disinformation”, as it is dangerous.