We Lost 10,000 Herdsmen, Four Million Cows Since 2015 — Miyetti Allah

From 2015, over four million livestock were rustled, killed or confiscated with over million pastoralists displaced, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) has stated.

No fewer than 10,000 pastoralists were killed during the same period, the organisation added.

National President of MACBAN, Alhaji Husseini Bosso, stated these at the national security summit held in Abuja on Wednesday.

Bosso said MACBAN had in the last eight years engaged the Northern Governor’s forum, the Southeast and Southwest Governors on the causes and solutions to the farmers/herders conflict at its infancy.

He stated that the association also engaged the security agencies with whom it hosted a summit in Birnin Kebbi.

According to him: “From 2015 to date close to ten thousand pastoralists were murdered in Nigeria and over two million persons were displaced and impoverished while over four million livestock were either rustled, killed or outrightly confiscated using the machinery of Government.

“It is so disheartening and despicable to see how members of IPOB/ESN are consistently targeting our innocent members in their quest to gain unmerited attention from the Federal Government.

“Our members are being used as cannon powder to fan the embers of hatred. Recently, they set a whole trailer loaded with Cattle ablaze after killing its occupants. What a callous and barbaric display of the highest degree of inhumanity.

“Not long ago, members of IPOB/ESN released a video where they were seen shooting cattle belonging to pastoralists Indiscriminately in the bush. This barbarism must be stopped. IPOB/ESN are the greatest threat to the corporate existence of this country.

“Yet, no compensation, no resettlement unlike other Nigerians who suffered similar fate. For a people with no known skills or trade, this is real danger in the making!

“Recently, it has become like a competition to enact anti-open grazing laws without recourse to the fundamental human rights as guaranteed by the constitution.

“In Benue State for instance, it has become a cartel between officials of the state government, the state livestock yards and some overzealous security agents to confiscate cattle and auction them after detaining them for two weeks only.

“It is on record that all Federal Government policies geared towards alleviating farmers/herders’ conflict such as Ruga, the National Livestock Transformation plan (NLTP) have been consistently and deliberately frustrated”.