Oshiomole warns Fulani herders and farmers to maintain peace or face the consequences

EDO State governor Adams Oshiomole has warned Fulani herdsmen and local farmers in the state to maintain the peace or face the wrath of the law adding the he would not ban either grazing or farming as both set of agriculturalists needed to work together.

 

As with most of Nigeria's 35 other states, Edo has had its fair share of violent clashes between Fulani herdsmen and local farmers. Due to livestock destroying crops, there have been explosions of anger with the heavily armed herdsmen in particular, being very brutal with reprisals.

 

Yesterday, Governor Oshiomole convened a stakeholders’ meeting to find lasting solutions to the clashes between the herdsmen and farmers in the state. Addressing participants, the governor said if the matter was not properly managed, the crisis can escalate beyond what could be managed quietly.

 

Governor Oshiomole added: “Edo State government will prosecute any rapist, any kidnapper, any rustler, who takes people’s cows. I think listening to all the stakeholders, whether royal fathers, farmers, Fulani herdsmen, everybody agreed that neither rape nor robbery, nor destruction of farms, nor rustling of cattle is acceptable.

 

“I think we are all committed to ensuring that we put an end to any of these practices so that all of us can continue to live together in peace, harmony and in security. In every conflict, you will find someone you can describe as the oppressor and somebody might be blamed but every conflict can be resolved if all the parties approach the solution with honest intentions and whatever agreement reached, we faithfully try to implement."

 

He added that you cannot decree a solution but the people and the government can work towards a solution and they have to use both the carrot and stick approach. Governor Oshiomhole said the state would set up about 19 committees, one in each of the 18 local government areas of the state to resolve the recurring clashes.

 

In addition, Governor Oshiomole explained that the membership of the panel would include traditional rulers, farmers, community leaders, youth leaders and the representatives of the Fulani herdsmen. Meanwhile, his Ondo State counterpart, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, has declared that the incessant attacks on farmers by Fulani herdsmen in the southwest and some other parts of the country must be checked.

 

Governor Mimiko said he feared that if the attacks of the herdsmen were not curtailed urgently, the development might lead the country to the precipice. He called on President Muhammadu Buhari and other stakeholders to be more proactive about the attacks in order to stop them from degenerating to a serious crisis in the country.