BUHARI SAYS FULANI HERDSMEN ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR RECENT KILLINGS, SEE WHO HE IS BLAMING

In a statement yesterday, The Federal Governnent described the Fulani cattle rearers as very peaceful people while those involved in conflicts with farmers, killings and destruction of property were not Fulanis, but rather another gang of Boko Haram. The Federal Government said that the persons arrested in connection with the herdsmen killings cannot even speak Fulani or any other Nigerian language for that matter and described them as terrorists from foreign countries.

Heineken Lokpobiri, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development who spoke yesterday at the Public Hearing on perennial clashes between herdsmen and farmers, organized by the Senate Joint Committees on Agriculture and Rural Development and National Security and Intelligence, said that perennial conflict was both a national and regional problem. He stated:

“Available statistics to us in government show that contrary to media report that these violent herdsmen are the conventional Nigerian Fulanis, they are not, as none of those apprehended was able to speak any of the Nigerian languages.

‘’This gives  strong credence to the possibility of the violent herdsmen to be another form of terrorists in the mode of Boko Haram.

Fulani herdsmen, under Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria,  MACBAN, rejected the setting up of ranches and supported the establishment of grazing reserves while also calling on the government to create Ministry for Livestock Development.

Mohammed Bello Tukur, the Association’s National legal Adviser said in a 24page presentation on behalf of Miyetti Allah Cattle that.

.“The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development should work with the ‘Ministries of Water Resources, Environment, National  Planning, Foreign Affairs, state governments, farmer organizations, and community leaders to demarcate routes and cattle resting points with support from technical and financial partners”.