Herdsmen, farmers’ clashes: FG deploys 3, 000 ‘agro-rangers’ to farms

By Bode Olagoke
Abuja

The federal government has revealed plans to deploy no less than 3,000 Nigeria Security and Civil Defence (NSCDC) personnel to serve as “agro-rangers” for the protection of farms and agricultural investments in the country.
Minister of Interior, Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau, revealed this yesterday in Abuja, when he briefed newsmen on the efforts being made to protect Nigerians and their property.

Dambazau said the measure was meant to stem the tide of herdsmen and farmers clashes in the country and protect agricultural investments in the country.
He said the armed NSCDC personnel would be specially trained in the act of protection and mediation in conflicts, “especially as it relates to ownership of farmlands and arresting cattle rustlers.”
“We know that the Police are being over-stretched in terms of maintaining law and order while the military is also battling insurgency. So, this falls within the purview of the NSCDC, these agro-rangers would be trained in the protection of agricultural assets and mediation in issues such as land disputes,” he said.

Dambazau added that the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) had also been charged, especially with the new Immigration Regulations 2017, to ensure the proper registration/monitoring of all foreigners including foreign herdsmen who come into the country.
While expressing optimism that all these measures will help in addressing the farmers/herdsmen clashes and boosting agricultural production as part of the plans to diversify the economy, the minister said “although Nigeria is a signatory to the ECOWAS Trans-human protocol which allows herdsmen from the region into the country, all the necessary precautions such as registration and possession of valid travel documents will be enforced.”

“We also know that we have serious challenges between herders and farmers. Some of these challenges do overlap with non Nigerians because as you know there is a corridor within West Africa whereby herders move on those corridors from one country to another.
“So, we have made arrangement to implement the ECOWAS decision on international transhuman because some of them when they come in they have conflict and they go out but there is provision whereby every country suppose to provide reception centers and through the ECOWAS every country suppose to give transhuman certificate so that we recognise the movement of transhuman from one point to another. That itself is what we are doing to enhance the security, protect our borders and protect Nigerians.”

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