Cattle Breeders Association Poses Threat to National Security-NGO

An NGO, Advocacy for Advancement of Peace & Harmony in Africa Initiative (ADAPHAI) has described the activities and utterances of members of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria(MACBAN) as a serious threat to National Security, called for urgent action to avert imminent danger.

The statement was made on Sunday through the Executive Director of the organisation, Mr Olaniyi Ajibola while speaking on the build-up crisis between cattle rearers and farmers in Ekiti State.

Ajibola said the recent threat of imminent attack on Ekiti people by the association over the alleged killings of cows in the state and ban on open rearing of cows through Grazing Reserve Act was a serious threat to National Security and a recipe to internal uprising.

He noted that any federating unit has the power to legislate exclusively on many topical issues of interest within the political enclave through its residual power in the constitution, which encapsulates grazing reserve law.

According to him, “issuing a threat statement against a governor of the  state, who is primarily the chief security officer of the state and a song of war against his people is not only barbaric but treasonable.

Ajibola explained that the latest position of the association on the issue of cattle rearing in Ekiti has confirmed and corroborated the recent findings of the organisation about the activities of herdsmen all over the country.

The Peace Advocate averred that the organisation had concluded a comprehensive research on the mode and pattern of attacks by the herdsmen, including their source of armament, and discovered shocking revelations that seriously pose a threat to National Security.

He therefore called on President Muhammadu Buhari to quickly mobilise various security agencies in the country to checkmate the activities of Fulani herdsmen and invariably avert possible internal uprising of “unimaginable magnitude”.

In his words, the covert reality of the incessant clashes between cattle rearers and farmers anywhere in Nigeria is ” a wrapped infringement” of people’s rights with impunity.

“By our mandate and objectives, we are statutorily a whistle blower on issues that pose threat to peace and National Security, and our voice should be compulsorily louder in the face of dicey security challenges in Nigeria, and Africa at large.

” The blood baths in various communities of Nigeria as a result of rifts between cattle rearers and farmers compelled us to embark on painstaking  research and methodological findings on the burning issue of continuous clashes over grazing territories between herdsmen and farmers.

“Our findings convincingly revealed that the style of grazing by cattle rearers adversely affect the farmers economically and infringes on their rights of ownership without remorse, which make them to confront cattle rearers most of the times in which the Fulani herdsmen responded with violence.

“We authoritatively gathered that the Miyyeti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria has a Standing Army of Occupation on the Plateau, who they call upon anytime there is hostility between them and their host communities.

“Also, the association, as a matter of policy make it compulsory for its members to contribute annually to a funding pool for the purpose of procuring armament, through some syndicates in different security agencies and powerful Nigerians who are  cattle owners or  sympathisers.

“The concentration of this Fulani Standing  Army of Occupation (FSAO) on the plateau  makes attacks in States like Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau, Enugu and Kaduna to be callously brutal.

“On many occasions, FSAO supplies sophisticated weapons to brave nomads for preliminary attacks where they encounter confrontation from frustrated farmers, and mobility for the FSAO proves difficult because of distance.

“Sincerely, this is a serious threat to our indivisibility and corporate entity, the president as a matter of exigency should direct security agencies in the country to wade in and professionally investigate the veracity of these findings without fair or favour to save our dear country from impeding danger,” Ajibola resorted.