Ekiti State Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Security, Dr.
Olabode Adetoyi has cautioned Fulani herdsmen and farmers in the State
against any action that could lead to crises in any part of their
grazing and farming areas.
Dr. Adetoyi gave the warning at a tripartite meeting of stakeholders
held in Ado Ekiti.
The Commissioner, who explained that the meeting was convened to
fashion out ways to put an end to incessant clashes among farmers and
Fulani herdsmen and serial kidnaps in the State, said that farmers and
herders clashes usually get to its peak during the dry season with
high rate of North-South migration of cattle.
Dr. Adetoyi, at the expanded meeting that involved the leadership of
all the security formations in the State, relevant government
functionaries, Heads of Hausa/Fulani Communities, Leaders of Miyetti
Allah Cattle Breeders Association, representatives of farmers and
community leaders, urged all participants to bare their minds on how a
lasting peaceful co-existence could be achieved, stressing that
Agriculture could only thrive in a peaceful environment.
While appreciating the leadership of the Fulanis and the herders for
their support for Dr. Kayode Fayemis government, the Commissioner also
commended the security agents for their efforts at making Ekiti State
one of the most peaceful States in Nigeria.
In his own remarks, the Chairman of the meeting, who is also the
Special Adviser to the Governor on Security Matters, Major Gen
Ebenezer Ogundana (rtd), traced some of the factors responsible for
the serial attacks between the farmers and herders to the use of under
age children for grazing.
Major Gen. Ogundana who posited that these little children did not
know the values of the crops being destroyed, called on the leadership
of the cattle rearers to exercise control over their young ones.
In their own comments, the representatives of the State Commandant of
the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Service Corps (NSCDC) Mr.
Iyanu, Police Commissioner, Mr. Patrick Daaor, and the Director,
Department of State Security Services (DSS), Mr. Halilu, stressed the
need to put up an effective control mechanism to checkmate the
excesses of some of the herders, who usually perpetrate their
dastardly acts in the nights.
According to the Security Chiefs, they have been able to identify 3
strains of Fulanis, including the Ilorin Fulanis who are mostly
residents in Ekiti State, the migrating Bororo and Non Bororo Fulanis,
who in most cases carried out the destruction of farmlands in the
State.
They said that the situation could be brought under control if the
Ilorin Fulani settlers would cooperate with them and report the
presence of the violent herders anytime they arrive the State, saying
that the resident Fulanis know the migrating and destructive ones
around them.
In his remark, the commandant of the State Security Network, Amotekun
Corps, Brigadier General Joe Komolafe appealed to all stakeholders,
particularly the farmers and the residents Fulanis to always report
cases of crops destruction and influx of migrating herders to his
office at the local government levels.
Brig. Gen Komolafe also handed down the Corps hotline 09062970421 for
emergency calls to report cases of strange happenings across the
State.
The representative of Farmers, who is the Chairman Igbira Community in
Oye Local Government, Mr. Asuku Salami and another graduate farmer,
Mrs. Olanrewaju Babalola appealed to the government and the security
agencies to end the incessant destruction of their farms, which had
been their only source of livelihood.
They urged the government to do something decisive to curtail the
excesses of these Fulanis to avoid hunger and famine in Ekiti State.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Land matters, Mrs. Funke
Falodun called for urgent intervention as the activities of the
Fulanis have been driving away some of the States potential investors,
which according to her, has been affecting the investment drive of Dr.
Kayode Fayemi in the last two years.
In their comments, the seriki Fulani of Ekiti State, Alhaji Isiaka
Ibrahim, the Chairman, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association,
Alhaji Muhammad Nasamu and the Chairman, Miyetti Allah Vigilante
Group, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar assured that the herders would cooperate
with government to ensure peaceful co-existence with their host
communities.
While calling on government to constitute a joint task force,
comprising their members, their host communities and security agencies
to monitor their activities, particularly at night, the leadership of
the Hausa/Fulani Community promised to report strange faces in their
midst to security agents.
