Osun suggests solution to herders, farmers’ clashes

Osogbo

Osun state government has suggested traditional way of settlement for ending the killings by the herdsmen across the country.
The Commissioner for Special Duties and Chairman, Committee on Peaceful Co-existence between Fulani/Bororo and crop farmers in the state, Mr. Mudashiru Toogun, said the state had not recorded any killings due to its traditional approach.
He said the state had been proactive in using traditional way of settlement which he described as the “best approach to the drastic issue.”
Toogun, who spoke with newsmen in Osogbo, the state capital, on the efforts of the state government to end herdsmen killings, maintained that “there is no state that can solely find a lasting solution to the problem of herdsmen.”
He said that his committee had settled 6,000 cases between Fulani/Bororo and farmers since 2014, when the committee was inaugurated.
“We have surveillance in all the area where the nomadic herdsmen usually enter the state. We have sent more than ten sets of them back. We are not forcing them. Once they say they are from Niger Republic or any other place, we sent them back.
“We are also using a security group called Dan Allah who will ask a suspect to swear on Holy Qur’an and whoever steals after swearing would die before 24 hours,” he said.
Continuing, he said: “We are working with the monarchs and the house of assembly members. Only that we don’t have holiday and we don’t have festival.
“The nomadic herdsmen are the deadly ones. They move anytime of the day with sophisticated weapon. They are violent. They are difficult to arrest because they rear cows that belonged to the elite, politicians, both serving and former leaders.”
On the anti-grazing law, Toogun said the enactment of anti-grazing law would further fuel the crisis.
Citing example of Benue, Ekiti and other states, he said: “I am not totally in support of the anti grazing law. We have about three million cattle in Osun, there has not been any killing.”

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