The Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and Human Right Activist, Mr. Femi Falana has advised the Federal Government to rise up to the occasion to avert further crisis between the herdsmen and farmers.
In a long epistle, the legal luminary said, “The federal government should immediately enter into dialogue with the patrons and leaders of the Miyetti Allah to work out the logistics for establishing ranches in the states with large scale livestock.
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It has to be made abundantly clear to the members of the Miyetti Allah that the freedom of movement of herdsmen and their cattle is circumscribed by the rights of farmers to life and property.
Furthermore, that no one is authorized to bear weapons and that the killing of any unarmed person in any part of the country is punishable with death. However, not a few people have questioned the wisdom in involving the federal government in the establishment of ranches.â€
Falana went further, “But Chief Ogbe has stoutly defended the involvement of the federal government in the establishment of ranches when he said that, “We have spent money on cocoa, rice, groundnut, we have spent money on tomato and other fruits, palm oil, we are doing researches on these and nobody has really done much for the herdsmen and we have forgotten.â€
However, until the Miyetti Allah recently announced that it had decided to launch reprisal attacks in Benue and other states wherever the Fulani people are attacked the federal government had given the impression that the armed herdsmen were nationals of Senegal, Mali, Niger and Libya.
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But whether the herdsmen are Nigerians or foreigners it is indisputable, as Professor Biodun Jeyifo has observed, that this is the first time in the history of Nigeria that any armed group has been allowed to possess arms and ammunition and attack law abiding citizens without any challenge from the neo-colonial State.
Of course, the Buhari regime is right in saying that the herdsmen were not disarmed by previous regimes. But having crushed other armed groups in the country the Buhari administration cannot justify the decision to treat the armed herdsmen like sacred cows.
Therefore, it is high time the armed herdsmen were disarmed by the federal government. At the same time, the much delayed ranches should be established while all feuding communities are reconciled. With ranches and abattoirs established in a few states, meat would be prepared in large scale and distributed throughout the country and possibly exported.
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That is what has been done in Botswana which is the largest producer and exporter of meat in Africa. That southern African country of 2.2 million people with a cattle population of over 3 million has successfully stopped violent clashes between farmers and cattle herdsmen. Once ranches and abattoirs are established in Nigeria, all controversial anti-grazing laws would become spent while Governor Ayo Fayose would not have any basis to risk the lives of the hunters in Ekiti state by mobilizing and equipping them with local guns to confront AK 47-bearing herdsmen!â€
Femi Falana, SAN
www.sojworld.com © January 17, 2018
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