Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), South-east zone met in Enugu on Sunday and assured South-Easterners of peaceful co-existence between them and their host communities.
They also assured that the Fulani herdsmen have no grudges with the south-east states and dispelled the rumors that the herdsmen were planning to attack Anambra and Enugu states.
At a meeting the association held weekend in Enugu, the zonal chairman, Gidado Sadiq in an address to participant drawn from the five south-east states regretted that the presence of a Fulani man was regarded as a threat to any community.
He solicited that the Fulani man should be regarded as any Nigerians who can freely go to anywhere and perform his business. The group explained that they were in the southeast states to look for greener pastures to feed their cattle.
โWe are not here to terrorize anyone, but weโre scared of people coming under the guise of the Fulani herdsmen to unleashed terror on our hosts. We advise our members to be watchful and report to us any strange face around them. We also implore the general public to be vigilant and not to allow anyone to destroy the peaceful co-existence we are enjoying,โ stressed the group.
The group was full of praises of the governors of the south-east, saying that the governors are peace-loving people. โWe wanted our host communities to appreciate the efforts by the governors of the states.
The governors are peace loving people and I continue to confess that if other governors in other regions can emulate the footsteps of the governors of the South East, particularly those of Enugu and Anambra states, there will be no confrontation between cattle herdsmen and farmers.
โEverybody should be given a fair judgment. If a Fulani man allows his cattle to destroy peopleโs farm, he should be punished based on the offense he committed or paid adequate compensation to the farmer. In the other hand, if a cow was killed by a farmer or anybody from the community, the person will pay the value of the cow that he killed, and anybody who did wrong, whether it is a Fulani man or a native, he will be identified through his leaders.
โWe also warn our members to be very careful with the farmerโs crops and when they are migrating from one state to the other, they should inform the States leaders where they are passing through. We warn our members to stop crossing across the border of a state and destroy and run back to another state. More especially people usually come from Ebonyi state to destroy farms in Enugu and run back to Ebonyi state likewise those from Enugu go to Ebonyi and run back to Enuguโ, Sadiq admonished.
