MIYETTI Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (Macban) officials have attacked Ekiti State governor Ayo Fayose for banning cattle herding across the state and the institution of a task force to enforce the ban.
In late August, Governor Fayose signed a bill into law banning grazing in some areas of the state and treating offenders as terrorists. This Anti Grazing Bill, 2016 was introduced following the killing of two people by persons suspected to be Fulani herdsmen in Oke Ako, in Ikole Ekiti Local Government Area and criminalises grazing in forbidden places and at certain times across Ekiti State.
Last week, he took this a step further by inaugurating the Ekiti Grazing Enforcement Marshals (Egem), charged with enforcing the ban. A vigilante group Egem has been tasked with arresting cows found invading and damaging farms across the state.
Branding Governor Fayose’s actions as unscrupulous and targeted at its members who are bona fide citizens of the country, Macban has vowed to oppose the move. Macban spokesman Baba Othman Ngelzarma, said, that recently, the anti-malu vigilante group shot five cows and carted away the meat but the herdsman was able to flee with the rest of his cattle.
He added: “As far as we know, Ekiti State is not an island of its own but a state within the Federal Republic of Nigeria and while the governor is permitted to carry out actions geared towards protecting the interest of Ekiti State, such actions should follow the rule of law. We deplore this act of brigandage and call on Governor Fayose to offer an unreserved apology to Macban and equally set machinery in motion with a view to compensating our members who lost five cows in this primitive adventure.
“That the brutality of the Ekiti Grazing Enforcement Marshals, popularly known as Anti- malu on herdsmen is even outside the time stipulated by that law, if the law exists at all. The federal government should therefore look into the actions and activities of this committee because we cannot fold our hands while the only means of survival of our members is taken away and destroyed."
Mr Ngelzarma said they are constrained to implore the federal government through its security agencies to wade into this unprovoked and primitive aggression against its members, before this macabre incident develops into an unquenchable inferno. However, the group sympathised with the government of Kaduna State and the people of Kaduna South over the recent attack on Godogodo community by people suspected to be Fulani herdsmen.
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