Over recent years, Nigeria has had an ongoing problem with cattle stealing, prompting Fulani herders to resort to arming themselves with automatic assault rifles. This escalating crisis has led to repeated bloody clashes between the Fulani herders and local farming communities, resulting in tit-for-tat killings.
Last year, delegates to Nigeria's National conference called on the federal government to establish grazing ranches across the country to arrest the problem. Last week, the Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai, added that if the menace of cattle rustling was not checked, it would lead to another crisis on the scale of the Boko Haram problem.
Over the weekend, police in Kano confronted three Senegalese cattle rustlers identified as Umar Dogo Ndaiye, Datti Umar Rodi and Mammadu Dogo. They engaged the security men in a after a gun duel in the Falgore Forest but were shot, after which the police discovered a large cache of arms from them.
Muhammad Musa Katsina, the Kano State police commissioner, said: "Umaru Dogo Ndaiye, a Senegalese national, was gunned down when he engaged our men in a gun battle at Falgore Forest by Gazobi village. He later gave up the ghost while receiving treatment in the hospital.”
He added that the other two deceased lost their lives in the cause of the gun battle with police. Mr Katsina later paraded 74 rustlers, along with 818 cows and 87 sheep, which he said his men had recovered.
According to the police commissioner, some of the suspects were nabbed, clad in police and army camouflage which they used to intimidate and rob Fulani herdsmen. Mr Katsina revealed that during the month-long special operation in the Falgore Forest and its environs, the police recovered 42 AK47 rifles and 28 live cartridges.
He added that revolver pistol and 224 cattle were recovered from the notorious kingpin Mr Ndaiye, while four other members of his gang were arrested. Mr Katsina later paraded the suspects and recovered livestock before the state governor, Abdullahi Ganduje and the Emir of Kano Muhammad Sanusi II, adding that a police officer who was injured during the operation had recovered.
Governor Ganduje said:“This is happening as we are yet to recover from the menace of insurgency but now another frightening dimension of crime has resurfaced, which is alarming."
Emir Sanusi recommended that Islamic law be applied in the prosecution of the suspects, so they could face such punishments as the amputation of hands and legs, killing, pelting of their bodies with sticks, life imprisonment or exile.
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