The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria has appealed to Mr. Ayodele Fayose, governor of Ekiti State, to relax the ban on nomadic cattle grazing in his state.
Fayose had earlier this week declared a ban on nomadic cattle grazing and insisted that cattle rearers must establish ranches if they want to breed cattle in the state. He also disclosed that he was going to sponsor a bill to the state house of assembly to pass the ban into law.
Mr. Baba Ngelzerma, the secretary general of the association made this appeal when he appeared as as a guest on on Channels Television.
Ngelzerma asked the governor to show statesmanship, blaming most of the attacks on “criminals”. He also said that his association was ready to negotiate with the Ekiti State government.
“Our doors are open, we can still go to the governor, we can still discuss and find solutions to these problems,” he said.
“We had a meeting with our elites from different fields of human endeavours to find solutions to these problems. We are calling on the governor of Ekiti state to show a lot of statesmanship.
“These things are perpetrated by criminals. No doubt what happened is sad but before investigations are conducted, people jump to conclusions that things were done by herdsmen; it may be so, but at least as a governor he should wait and find out who the perpetrators are before apportioning blame.
“The whole of Ekiti state is his responsibility today including strangers that are in the state. Even the cows that are in Ekiti state today, the governor has a responsibility on them.
“You cannot blame an entire group for a crime committed by few. There was a situation in Ore where a watchman killed a herdsman, we did not take law into our hands, instead we reported to the police.
“We cannot say that the Yoruba people are responsible for that. If you stop the Fulanis from grazing, where should they go?”.
Ngelzerma also disclosed that the cattle rearer’s association, often referred to as ‘Fulani Cattle Rearers” because of the exclusive ethnic make-up of the group, has been collaborating with security agencies to find a last solution to the problem.
“A lot have been going on regarding this issue and different factions of the government have been looking into it. We have been having meetings with the defence headquarters and the police, hands are on deck to resolve the issue.”
