KwaraTo Punish Perpetrators Of Farmers, Herdsmen’s Clashes

Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed has said that perpetrators of clashes between farmers and herdsmen in the state would henceforth be treated as criminal suspects and be made to face the full wrath of the law.

The governor, who stated this yesterday at a meeting with members of the State Chapter of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), noted that such attacks constitute a crime against the state and must be handled as such.

He, therefore, called on all affected parties to allow justice take its course by treating such incidents as violation of the law. The State Secretary of MACBAN, Malam Abdulazeez Mohammed, said that they were at the meeting to express their bitterness over the attack on their members and also to seek protection for their people across the state.

He also expressed the association’s support for the government’s decision to compensate victims of the attack and also treat culprits as criminals. In another development, indigenes of Cross River State have urged Governor Ben Ayade to immediately expel Fulani herdsmen from their soil following Sunday’s attack on members of Obio Usiere community in Odukpani Local Council of the state.

Addressing journalists on behalf of the indigenes in Lagos, a former House of Representatives candidate for Odukpani and Calabar Municipal under the defunct African Liberation Party, Dr. Grace Ekpoawan Achum, said that more than 10 people were killed in the recent attack while over 50 others are missing and property worth millions of naira were destroyed.

She warned the governor not to throw the state into anarchy by trying to please the Presidency. However, the state police spokesman, who confirmed that only one person died in the attack, said policemen had been drafted to the area to provide 24 hours security.

In a similar vein, the National Association of Delta State Students (NADESSTU) has flayed the state government’s alleged non-chalant act over the continued killing of persons, particularly farmers, by the rampaging Fulani herdsmen in the state.

The students’ union body, after an emergency meeting yesterday, also issued a 21-day ultimatum to the state government to address the menace of the herdsmen. The union in a statement signed by its National President and Secretary, Shaka Emomine and Otuorha Oghenekaro respectively, however, appealed to the state government to take up the educational responsibilities of the late senior member of staff of Delta State University (DELSU), Sunday Idama, and others who had fallen victims to attacks by the herdsmen.

But the State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Patrick Ukah, chided the students’ union leadership for its comments, saying that the state government under the leadership of Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa had never fold its hands to the alleged killing of persons in the state allegedly by the Fulani herdsmen.

Meanwhile, a combined security team has recovered illegal weapons from an underground bunker in a suburb village near Gbishe in Katsina-Ala Local Council of Benue State. Special Adviser to the Governor on Security, Col. Edwin Jando, who displayed the ammunition at the Benue People’s House, Makurdi, said that the bunker, according to intelligent information, was one of the many bunkers in the area where illegal arms are stored.

Source: Guardian