The Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, has said most herdsmen that cause trouble in Nigeria are foreigners, specifically from neighbouring Mali and Chad.
He also argued that cattle rustlers were able to gain entry into Nigeria with their cattle as a result of the country’s porous borders.
Arase said this on Friday during an interactive session between him and stakeholders in Ondo State. Majority of those at the occasion held at the Officers’ Mess, Akure, the state capital, were farmers.
The IG, who paid a courtesy visit to the state and the neighbouring Ekiti State on the same day, however, noted that Nigerians among the herdsmen were not notorious, saying “they are law-abiding.”
Arase said, “We should also know about the history of migration. Most of these herdsmen are not Nigerians. They are people from Mali and Chad, who came into our system. That is why we have to be very careful. Our borders are very porous. Predominantly, our own herdsmen are law-abiding people.
“But when people come from outside with their cattle, we should not deny them entry because of ECOWAS protocols, good neighbourliness but at the same time we should not allow them to embark on criminal activities.”
During the visit, the police boss met with Governor Olusegun Mimiko and discussed how to set up ranches across the country to end the incessant clashes between Fulani herdsmen and farmers.
“I have taken suggestions on how we can develop big ranches so that they (Fulani) can stop grazing on farmlands,” the IG stated.
He also urged the farmers and other stakeholders to be careful and take caution in dealing with the herdsmen.
During the interactive session, some of the farmers lamented that persistent attacks on their farmlands by Fulani herdsmen had been on the increase, wondering why the government had failed to address such attacks.
One of the farmers, who identified himself as Sunday Owoseni, said there was a need for security agencies to take attacks by the herdsmen seriously before it degenerated into a serious security threat.
He said after the abduction of a former Minister for Finance, Chief Olu Falae, by the herdsmen, everyone thought the government and other stakeholders would be more proactive about reducing such attacks on farmers.
Owoseni argued that despite Falae’s abduction by herdsmen, the government had refused to take the Fulani’s threat seriously.
Another farmer, Mrs. Ngozi Ogbonna, explained that she secured a N1.5m loan from a microfinance bank to plant cassava and rice, lamenting that her crops were destroyed by cattle.
She alleged that all efforts to arrest the culprits were frustrated by the police.
She appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari, Mimiko and Arase to find a lasting solution to the incessant attacks by the herdsmen on farmlands.
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