By Baba Yusuf
Worried by the incessant attacks on Fulani settlements and villages in the northern Nigeria by armed bandits, a Fulani socio-cultural association, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, has called for concerted efforts by individuals and security agents toward tackling the menace.
National President of the association, Alhaji Bello Abdullahi Bodejo, made the call while speaking with newsmen yesterday in Abuja.
He said “this monster is also the brain behind incessant crisis brewing between some communities, nomads and farmers in the country.”
Bodejo also accused some leaders in the complicity by the armed bandits, saying that it made it difficult to confront the problems.
He said: “Some 20 years of conflicts have bred criminals amongst the youth who lost their cattle and all they know is herding and without cattle, life is devoid of meaning. Some of them joined armed gangsterism, raiding the herds of their kinsmen whom they envy for not coming to their aid in their predicament.”
He lamented that cattle rustling was not restricted to Fulani alone as large-scale farmers who also bred cattle for commercial purposes were also affected by the problem.
The Fulani leader also said if the problems were left unchecked, it was capable of causing a socio-economic dilemma for the country, and condemned the involvement of some leaders.
Bodejo appealed to the government to urgently identify some illegal cattle markets and abattoirs across the country with a view to closing them down, adding that such markets and abattoirs were being used by cattle rustlers to sell and buy stolen cattle.
