How we stopped Fulani herdsmen from invading our land – Cross River Monarch

 

The Paramount Ruler of Mkpani, Obol Lopon of Mkpani, His Royal Majesty (HRM) Obol Sunday Obono Okoi has disclosed how his community stopped Fulani herdsmen from entering their farmlands.

He said his community has put various machinery in place to make it impossible for herders to enter their farmlands.

Speaking with DAILY POST on Thursday, the Monarch lamented the activities of herders and called on the Federal Government to caution herdsmen with a view to stopping them from destroying people’s farms and allegedly killing farmers.

“It is not bad for people to carry on with their legitimate businesses, but it’s bad for people to abandon their legitimate business and embark on the destruction and killing of innocent people or fermenting criminal activities

“If somebody has farmland and use that to train his or her children, eat from there, rent houses and other activities, and you are also doing your business, why should you allow your business to supersede others, using your animal to destroy others? It’s bad.

“In my place, Mkpani, in Yakurr Local Government Area of Cross River State, we have put ourselves together by not allowing them to come into our community and attempt anything in our farm because we are afraid of a lot of things.

“We held several Council meetings and took various decisions including how to protect our people and our farms. We don’t joke with our farms since we have highway that passes through our community. We give strong warning that as they come, they pass,” he stated.

Consequently, on the drum of war allegedly being peddled by some regions in the guise of restructuring, the Monarch said, “Basically, the essence of government is to solve problems of the people and in every society, government has to put the esteem laws that will guide the workings of the people and we believe that some of these laws we are having are very obsolete.

It’s necessary for us to reconsider ourselves and see how we can realign with the reality of our time and moment. If there is need for us to meet, we have to meet and get things done peaceful manner.

“If there is need for us to curb insecurity. We have to do that fast because our population today has multiply geometrically to a level that everybody is worried,” he said.

- DAILY POST  

Bakare: Open grazing is obsolete… it needs to end

 

Tunde Bakare, overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, formerly known as Latter Rain Assembly, says open grazing, which is currently being practised in the country needs to end.

Speaking on Arise Television on Thursday, Bakare said the world has moved beyond the practice of open grazing.

According to the pastor, Nigerians must separate pastoralists from the “terrorists” in the forests causing trouble.

“I will also bring to the attention of Mr President, and I know his ministers and those in government will be doing the same with him. One of the issues is open grazing. It is obsolete and it needs to end. It needs to end because the nations of the earth had gone beyond this,” he said.

“I was in Glasgow, I was in Israel; there are so many things that we can do about agricultural pastoralism that would stop all the troubles in our land.

“We’ve lived with Fulani and Fulani have lived with us across our lands. We must separate this agricultural pastoralism from the second thing, the terrorists in the forests. The government must fish out the criminals.

“We must be careful of indiscriminate violence and separate terrorists in the forests from agricultural pastoralism.”

Bakare, who called for more action to address insecurity in the country, added that the invasion of peoples’ farms must be stopped.

- THECABLE

FULANI TERRORISTS !!! Negotiate with unrepentant Fulani bandits, grant amnesty to them – Sheikh Gumi tells Buhari

 

A renowned Islamic scholar, Ahmed Muhammad Gumi has urged the federal and state governments to grant amnesty to repentant bandits, saying that there will be serious bloodshed and merciless killings if the government and security agencies continue to engage the bandits on operation fire-for-fire.

Addressing newsmen at the chamber of the Government House in Gusau, the state capital, sheikh Gumi explained that the late President Musa Yar’Adua granted amnesty to militants in the South-South zone and went extra mile to create the ministry of Niger Delta Affairs which sheikh Gumi said calmed down the tensed situation.

“Negotiations remain the best option for conflict resolution. Negotiations settled the grievances of the militants in the South-South so president Buhari should borrow from that ideology to end terror attacks in his own government,” sheikh Gumi added.

According to Sheikh Gumi, almost all the heinous crimes in Nigeria are being perpetrated by the unemployed youths who have no defined means of livelihood for a number of years, pointing out that a hungry man is an angry man.

The Islamic scholar who visited some of the bandits dens and hideouts in Zamfara state said that the Fulani unrepentant bandits tabled some of their grievances which they said have not been addressed by the state government.

He said that the Fulani unrepentant bandits demanded justice in dealing with the Fulani people, saying that both the security agencies and the outlawed Yansakai members have classified the Fulani people as third-class citizens in a country that belongs to everybody.

The Islamic scholar explained that the Fulani unrepentant bandits also lamented that mere seeing any Fulani herdsman with a car or motorcycle has become a serious crime against the security agencies and the outlawed Yansakai members as they would seize the car or motorcycle from the Fulani herdsmen describing them as bandits or kidnappers.

Sheikh Gumi noted that the same Fulani unrepentant bandits also complained that during their meetings with the state government on peace accord and reconciliation, all the promises that were made by the state government did not reach the Fulani herdsmen as the kind gestures were being hijacked by the middlemen between the Fulani herdsmen and the state government.

“In some of our communities, there is no potable drinking water, no accessible road, no good health care delivery service or any form of social facility and until the state government addresses these problems, we will not embrace the peace accord and reconciliation” the unrepentant bandits lamented.

The Islamic scholar, therefore, called on the state government to as a matter of urgency ensure judicious distribution of any right that belongs to the Fulani people in the state, stressing that hijacking of their rights will aggravate the already existing tension in the state.

“There is nowhere that peace can reign without justice and if there is justice, the federal and state governments would not have been wasting huge amount of money to quell banditry in the state”

- DAILY POST

IPOB members attack Police Divisional Headquarters in Ebonyi

Some hoodlums suspected to be members of the Proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), on Thursday, attacked the Police Divisional Headquarters in Isu, Onicha Local Government Area (LGA) of Ebonyi State.

The left-wing of the Station was burnt in the process.

DSP Loveth Odah, Spokesperson of Ebonyi Police Command, confirmed the development.

in a press statement in Abakaliki, said, four patrol vehicles were also burnt.

“On Thursday at about 0325hrs, hoodlums, suspected to be members of the Proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), attacked Onicha Divisional Police Headquarters, Isu, in Onicha LGA of Ebonyi State.

“One policeman sustained machete cut injuries during the attack and he is responding to treatment in the hospital,” the statement stated.

- PM NEWS

‘They’re not conducive for a mega city’ — Lagos to phase out ‘danfo’ and ‘molue’

 The Lagos state government says it will soon phase out the commercial yellow buses because they are not conducive for a mega city.

The yellow buses are popularly called “danfo” or “molue”.

Speaking on Thursday during an online forum, Frederick Oladeinde, commissioner for transportation, said the yellow buses do not have a place in the transportation master-plan of the state.

He said the yellow buses would be replaced by blue buses under the bus rapid transit (BRT) scheme.

“We are reforming the bus sector and over time, Lagos will phase out the yellow buses because the yellow buses are not conducive for a mega city like Lagos. That is why we are coming with blue buses you see around,” Oladeinde said.

“We are inviting the private sector to participate in the provision of public transport services. We are also deploying technology just to ensure that we can up our game in terms of efficiency.”

Commenting on the incessant traffic jams at Apapa axis of the state, the commissioner said: “Lagos State in collaboration with the Nigerian Ports Authority invited a concessionaire and that concessionaire developed an Eto app that will be deployed February 27.

“Lagos State has committed 31 hectares of land in Iganmu called the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Truck Park to complement what is at Lilypond and we are talking to the Ogun State Government to secure a land in Ogere.”

- THECABLE

We have frightening evidence of heinous activities of Fulani herdsmen – Islamic group

 The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has said that it has overwhelming evidence of destructions of farmlands by Fulani herdsmen across all the States of the federation.

MURIC wants the Federal Government to compensate farming in all the states where herdsmen invade farms with their animals.

The Islamic human rights group, in a statement to DAILY POST on Friday, signed by its director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, suggested that the compensation which may be instalments, should be paid to farmers whose farms were destroyed in all states of the federation.

MURIC said it is in possession of concrete evidence of the culpability of herdsmen, including video clips in which cows destroyed farms belonging to members of the organization.

“MURIC is now in possession of indubitable evidence of the destruction of crops on farmlands by cows brought by herdsmen.

“We sent out feelers to all states where we have branches of MURIC and the reports are overwhelmingly convincing.

“We asked our members to supply information on the activities of herdsmen in their states, including Abuja. In fact we were stupefied by the outcome.

“This is frightening. Farmers in Kwara State are afraid of going to their farms due to the activities of herders,” the group said.

The organization charges the President Muhammadu Buhari administration and State governments to take responsibility, adding it is very clear that the current government is yet to appreciate what farmers are going through in the hands of marauding herdsmen.

“What MURIC will like to suggest is that FG should roll out a compensation programme, albeit instalmentally, to be paid to farmers of all categories,” MURIC said.

The group, however, warned against conflicts over the activities of herdsmen, insisting that wars have not yielded positive results anywhere in Africa.

MURIC had recently made a similar call, tasking the Buhari-led government to do more than it is doing presently to address the burning issue of insecurity in the country.

The Islamic group had also advised the apex Fulani sociocultural group, Miyetti Allah to take responsibility and show good leadership by reorganizing its members into cooperatives and ask Federal Government for bailouts to buy huge portions of land where they can set up ranches and graze freely.

The group also called on the Federal Government to give the cattle rearing industry enough funds to buy land for the establishment of ranches.

Fulani herdsmen are being accused of involving in all manner of crimes against their host communities across the country, leading to several eviction ultimatum against them.

Many communities in the South have recently issued eviction notices to Fulani communities in the region.

While a popular Yoruba activist, Sunday Igboho has continued to battle killer-herdsmen in the South West, maintaining his vow to evict them, operatives of Nnamdi Kanu’s Eastern Security Network, ESN, are doing likewise in the East.

Igboho during the week stormed the troubled areas in Yewaland, Ogun State to battle the killer-herdsmen who he swore to chase out of Yorubaland.

In the same vein, in the East, most notably in Orlu [Imo State] and Isiukwuato [Abia State] there have been fracas between security agencies and ESN as the latter continues its fight against herdsmen.

And MURIC believes that the situation may generate into something uncontrollable if things are allowed to go on this way, urging governments at both state and federal levels to take decisive actions.

- DAILY POST

Nigerians in Atlanta outraged by killing of Prince Abuda

 

The Nigerian community in Atlanta, United States, has expressed outrage over the gruesome killing of its member, Prince Denis Oloniyo Abuda, by kidnappers back home in Edo.

Dr Victor Ubani, President of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO), Atlanta chapter, conveyed the community’s reaction on Thursday.

Speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in New York, Ubani condemned the killing of Abuda, a NIDO member, describing it as callous and inhuman.

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Abuda was reportedly abducted alongside three family members on the Benin bypass on Saturday.

Reports say he was traveling from his hometown, Fugar, in Edo, to Lagos to catch his flight back to the U.S. when the kidnappers struck.

His abductors were said to have shot him dead after he slumped during a forced march to their den in the forest.

Police operatives found Aduda’s decomposing body in the forest on Wednesday after ransom had reportedly been paid to free him and the other hostages.

The NIDO president called on the police and other security agencies to fish out the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

“This was a man feeding about 1,000 people in the village and training about 200 others in various schools.

“He was serving humanity, but look at the way he was killed like a goat.

“This thing has been happening unabated in Nigeria, now it has happened to one of us. No! We cannot take this anymore.

“It is time we demanded decisive action from government to put an end to the reign of kidnappers and terrorists in Nigeria,” he said.

Also reacting to the incident, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, NIDO Americas, Mr Obed Monago, called for the restoration of the death penalty for kidnapping in Nigeria.

Describing Abuda’s death as shocking, Monago told NAN that he saw a video of the deceased dancing to Nigerian music and bubbling with life the night before his kidnap

The spokesperson of the police command in Edo, Chidi Nwabuzor, who confirmed the incident, said security agents killed one of the abductors and arrested three others.

Nwabuzor told newsmen on Wednesday that the police were still in the forest searching for the other perpetrators.

- PM NEWS