Oswald Agwu
In its efforts at mitigating the insecurity posed by the activities of herdsmen in the various communities, the Ebonyi State Government has empowered people within communities in the State to arrest and hand over to the Police any underaged cattle rearer grazing within their borders.
The order was part of the outcome of an enlarged Security Council presided over by Governor David Umahi with the leadership of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria and other stakeholders in Abakaliki, the State capital, on Tuesday.
The State Deputy Governor, Kelechi Igwe, who read the nine-point communique to journalists at the end of the closed door meeting, added that the chief herder or the custodian of such an underaged herder should also be arrested and handed over to the police for prosecution.
Igwe noted that the special enlarged security meeting was necessitated by reported clashes between Fulani herdsmen and some host communities in the State, which in some cases had resulted in the loss of lives and destruction of properties.
According to Igwe, the council after due consideration, questions and clarifications from concerned persons, arrived at a communique that henceforth, members of the Miyetti Allah and their leadership must take responsibilities for any destruction of farm, crops, properties, including any attack and rape cases, on any community in Ebonyi State.
On the other hand, the community and political leaders are to take responsibility in fishing out the perpetrators in the killing of any herdsman and or their cows as well as other of such crimes for prosecution.
The communique mandated both parties to produce any such perpetrators within seven days for arrest and prosecution.
It mandated the Chairmen of local government areas to liaise with the Miyetti Allah leadership to produce identity cards for all the herders operating within the precinct of their local government areas, while all herders henceforth must reside in the community where they graze their cattle
While the communique prohibited grazing of cattle within and around the Centenary City, the Government House, schools, churches, recreation centres and other public places, it further prescribed that any herder seen leading cattle on foot on tarred roads in the State must be arrested and handed over to the police for prosecution by the community, where such infraction occur
The Communique furthermore enjoined the Chief Judge of the State to urgently set up a special court for trial of offenders of COVID-19 laws and protocols, cases of cultism and herdsmen clashes and infractions, rapes and killings associated thereto.
Igwe announced: “This is one of the security council meetings of his Excellency, Engr. Chief David Umahi.
“But today’s own is a special one.
“Special because it is an expanded Security Council meeting wherein our brethren, members of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, were invited, and they made a presentation.
“We looked at very serious issues that border on security in the State.
“Those issues, after looking at them, we arrived at very far reaching decisions.
“Principal among the issues we looked at is the killing of the members of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association within Ebonyi State, the rape cases that were reported by community leaders and sometimes, the Development Centre Coordinators and Council Chairmen in Ebonyi State, the destruction of our farm land, the attack on some communities by some persons suspected to be Miyetti Allah members….
“The various communities are by this meeting empowered to arrest and hand over to the Police any underaged cattle rearer grazing within their community, and the chief herder, who is the custodian of such person, must be prosecuted by the police according to our law….”
Meanwhile, the Deputy Governor, as part of the communique, announced Governor Umahi’s inclusion of the Miyetti Allah members in the COVID-19 palliative distribution in the State as well as the State Small and Medium Enterprise empowerment scheme to assist them economically.
The South-East Chairman of the MACBAN, Alhaji Gidado Siddiki, described the meeting as a welcome development.
According to Siddiki, the understanding would help the herders and their host communities keep vigilance to forestall further crises.
He explained that their itinerant nature occasioned by changes in weather condition was purely economic in search of greener pastures for their cows rather than for political domination as being insinuated in some quarters.
While he appreciated Umahi for his fairness in handling clashes between the herders and the communities, he appealed to the Governor to employ his office in helping to change the people’s mindset concerning the herders as a way of fostering mutual understanding and cooperation.
The meeting was also attended by heads of security agencies in the State, traditional rulers, leadership of town unions, political class and other leaders of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria among other stakeholders.
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