Southern Kaduna crises: Porous boarders responsible for free e – Daily Trust

The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, (MACBAN) has said that the porous nature of Nigerian boarders is responsible for the free entry and exit of killer herdsmen.

Addressing a press conference in Kaduna On Saturday, MACBAN assistant national secretary general, Ibrahim Abdullahi said, "In Nigeria, our borders are porous, people come in anytime and go out anytime they want, in fact it is a shameful thing today that we don't even know those that are indigenous Fulani or the transhuman Fulani.

"We don't know and that is why people mixed things up, you begin to suspect the Fulani man that you grew up with when anything happens. He has not traveled far where did he get the AK 47."

Abdullahi added "It is either Nigeria opt out of the ECOWAS protocol or we should apply the conditions. We should ensure that anybody coming into the country, we know when he is coming, where he is going and control what they are coming with.

"Another problem we have that you people don't know is that, these migratory Fulani that come into the country with all forms of weapons, many at times they come in with less than 50 cattle, but when going back they go with thousand cattle rustled from our own Fulani, so our economy is also affected.

"One other issue we need to know again is that, some of these countries that Fulani come from in Africa have crises, like Chad or central African Republic were there is rebellion. Weapons have become like pure water or bread, so people from there see it as normal to hang AK 47.

"So it is left for the government to do the right thing, let us decide who comes in because it is our country, let us decide the terms for the person coming, let us not because of ECOWAS protocol leave everything to fate, that is not going to help us."

Commenting on the alleged killing of four of their members by Kadara and Gwari communities in Kajuru local government areas of the state, Abdullahi said, "A kidnap incident took place in the area allegedly by Fulani herdsmen, but instead of trying to get to the root of the matter the communities descended on the nearest Fulani community."

He insisted that there is need for people to understand the different types of Fulani saying, " Fulani are categorized into three including the settled Fulani, the semi settled Fulanis and the trans human Fulani, those that are constantly on the move and they can also be categorized into two, some of them are Nigerians, some are foreigners from our neighboring countries like Cameroun, Chad and even Niger.

"Those Fulanis are constantly on the move and there is a law that provides for that movement, the ECOWAS protocol on nomadic transhuman movement, but the unfortunate thing is that all the signatories to those protocols, there are conditions governing people entering into your country or going out of your country.

He called on the government to ensure stringent checks at Nigerian boarders with a view to ending the spate of crises in the state and he country at large.

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Southern Kaduna crises: Porous boarders responsible for free e - Daily Trust