Umahi, Miyetti Allah’s strategies to end herdsmen/ farmers clashes in Ebonyi

Worried by the incessant killings of farmers, women, children and destruction of farmlands, as well as communities in Ebonyi state, the state governor, Dave Umahi, last week Monday, summoned the leader of herders’ association, under the aegis of Miyetti Allah, to find a lasting solution to the malaise. EGWUAGHA AMARACHUKWU reports
Incessant killings
The incessant killings among Headsmen and farmers in Nigeria has called for a serious rethink as it is capable of igniting national war if not seriously addressed, Ebonyi state government and the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria have warned.
The governor had called for caution in handling herdsmen and farmers’ crises across the country, during the meeting, understandably an urgent one, warranted by the fresh clash between the herders and farmers in the state, which claimed lives and scores injured.
According our correspondent, suspected herdsmen had attacked some farmers in Enyanwu Igwe ,
Igbeagu community of Izzi local government on Monday which left four persons dead and two others in critical conditions.
The state governor was reported as saying that the killing was unprovoked. He took a drastic action by ordering hersmen around the area to quit the place with immediate effect, until he calms the embittered villagers and stop them from reprisal attack.

Unprovoked killings
Hear him: “It is unprovoked killings, life is so sacred. You can’t kill people as if they are fowls. Izzi people are warriors, I physically held them not to go for retaliation. The herdsmen there in Izzi have to leave the place for now, until I can calm everybody down. The way we are going, it can provoke national war and it will not help anybody. If there is reprisal attack, I will hold all the leaders squarely responsible, I will charge all of you for any reprisal attack.”The life of every Ebonyian is very dear to me. God forbid, I can’t withstand where 76 people were killed like in Benue, I can’t withstand it. Some people may be fighting to die but we fight to live, let’s use wisdom and handle the matter.

National problem
“This is a national problem; we don’t want our people to be continually killed. We must use wisdom to handle this problem. It is very easy to say I want all the herdsmen to leave Ebonyi, but there are lots of implications”.
Regrettably, the governor recalled that agreement reached between the state and herdsmen in the area for peaceful co-existence have been destroyed.
He said: “We banned under aged herders, we banned night grazing in the state. We have no grazing routes in Ebonyi which means that nobody has the right to carry cattle by route to Ebonyi state and we agreed on that. We also agreed with the Herdsmen that the first offender must be prosecuted. We also said that no farmer should go to farm with gun and no herdsmen should rear cattle with gun or machete, it is stick. We must abide by these rules”.
The National Chairman of Myetti Allah, Bello Bodejo, cannot but corroborated Governor Umahi, stressing that the incessant killings in the country can cause chaos in the country.
He said the state had been very accommodative to the herdsmen, warning that it should not be abused.
Minors, migrants, causing lots of these problems
“Ebonyi state is very peaceful and it is accommodating to our members. It has been so accommodating to our members even more than some Northern states of the federation and we condemn these killings in this state . There are minors and migrants who are causing these lots of problems. There are also criminals moving as cattle herders who are causing these havocs. The Chairman of Myetti Allah of various states in the south east and south are all here and we are not happy with what happened, we condemn these killings in totality.
“Nigeria is confronted with so many security challenges and one of them is the unfortunate farmer/herder conflict. If this conflict is not resolved, it has the potential of throwing this country into unnecessary chaos”, he said.
Leaders of cattle herders in the South-east and South-south states, residents, stakeholders of the troubled community, as well as all the security chiefs in the state attended the enlarged security meeting, with the agenda of way forward to achieving peace in the state.

Leave a Reply