President Muhammadu Buhari would on April 26 declare open a conference on farmers and herdsmen crisis being organised by member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). This was disclosed by the Minister of Interior, Mr. Abdulrahman Dambazau, while briefi ng State House correspondents at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja yesterday. He said the conference which was initially planned for last February was part of efforts by the ECOWAS and some other African countries towards finding permanent solutions to the persistent farmers and herdsmen clashes in Nigeria and beyond.
“This is why, for instance, we initiated the conference that is to come up between April 26 and 29 under the ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Goods and Services, zeroing particularly on the protocol on the movement of trans-humans which was signed in 1978 but yet to be implemented. “I had meetings with President ECOWAS Commission, the one that left, and we agreed to have this conference sometime last month but because there were leaving and new set of management was coming in it was shifted to toward the end of this month.
So, the whole idea is to look at this issue of movements across borders. So, this month on April 26, God willing, we are going to have this conference and Mr President has graciously agreed to open the conference,’’ he said. He said the conference would attract participants from the Central African Republic, Chad, Cameroun, Morocco and Mauritania, and would explore the relationship between the ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement, the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, and trans-border criminal activities. The minister also spoke on fake news alerts being circulated in the social media concerning purported invasion of Abuja by members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) popularly known as Shi’ites.
“I am not sure of where that alert is coming from. You know that these days, you have to be very mindful of these things in the social media. It is like I saw one yesterday saying that there is going to be nuclear attack in the United Kingdom and this was broadcast by the BBC, and it is fake. So, you have to be very, very careful with that. “But I want to reassure you that law and order exist within the society and the FCT minister is very aware and is on top of it because of what happened recently. The commissioner of police is aware and is part of it.
About some people attacking or not, I think is something that we have to be cautious of where such information is coming from. If there is anything like that, you will get it from official sources. “As at now, there is nothing like that because the police is handling that.
You must have listened to the news last night and this morning, the commissioner of police FCT came out to speak and he assured all residents of FCT of security of lives and property,” he said. The minister also disclosed that the federal executive council approved N288 million for the purchase of eight rapid intervention vehicles for the Federal Fire Service and fi re-fighting equipment and 25 operational vehicles at N4.5billion. He said the council also approved N166million for the procurement of 285 motorcycles for the Nigerian Immigration Service, for border patrol and security assignments across the country.
