Herdsmen
Nigerian lawmakers approve $2.4 bn funds for security, coronavirus vaccines
Nigerian lawmakers on Wednesday approved some 982.7 billion naira ($2.4 billon) additional budget funds to help the government buy COVID-19 vaccines, and equipment for its security forces. Africa’s top oil producer, Nigeria is struggling with the economic impact of the pandemic and a slump in crude prices as well as surging violence from criminal gangs and its grinding jihadist insurgency. The approved amount is $216.8 million higher than President Muhammadu Buhari’s request made to the lawmakers in June and is expected to be sourced through international and local borrowing. Most of the funds – around 722 billion naira ($1.8 billion) would go towards the procurement of additional equipment for security forces, Senator Barau Jibrin, chair of the senate appropriation committee, said. Around...
Gunmen abduct passengers in Osun
Three days after rumours of an attack by criminal herdsmen forced parents to hastily withdraw their wards from schools in Osogbo, Osun State capital, gunmen have abducted yet to be specified number of persons in Obokun Local Government Area, LGA of the State. The sad event occurred on Monday afternoon when a commercial bus conveying the passengers was halted at close to Imesi Ile area of the state. The Nation reports that the commercial vehicle from Ekiti was going toward Ikirun through Ila road when the gunmen waylaid it at Odo-Osun and took passengers to a nearby bush. A security source said the gunmen shot severally to force the vehicle to stop before all the passengers were whisked away. Another source said volunteers of Kiriji Heritage Defenders, Hunter’s group and the police were com...
Suspected herdsmen amputate farmer in Nasarawa
Herdsmen suspected to be a bandits dislodged from other state has on Friday attacked a farmer at his farm, machetes him and cut his two hands at Ome Community in Obi Local Government Area of the state. According to eye witness who disclosed to the incident to newsmen said the victim was at his farm working when the Fulani herdsmen invade his crops in the process of telling the herdsmen to leave the farm, then he was attacked. An eye witness who narrowly escaped attacked explain the ordeal ” We were in the farm when we saw herdsmen grazing on the victim farm in the process of asked them to leave the farm, then we saw them make calls unknowingly to us we saw their men with Cutlass following us and accidentally the victim fall down on the process of running for safety when they herdsmen cut t...
Ondo assembly passes anti-open grazing, judicial autonomy bills into law
In a bid to regulate the activities of herdsmen and the rearing of livestock in the state, the Ondo State House of Assembly has passed into law the anti-open grazing bill. The House also passed into law the bill on the autonomy of the judiciary and the bill on violence against persons prohibition. The bills were passed after the chairmen of three committees submitted their reports on the bill. The plenary session of the Assembly, held on Thursday, was presided over by the Speaker, Mr Bamidele Oloyeloogun. Speaking on the bills at the session, the committee chairmen remarked that the bills were in the best interest of all citizens of Ondo State. On the anti-open grazing bill, Mr Taofik Mohammed of the House Committee on Agriculture explained that the bill was to regulate rearing and grazing...
Senator backs Nigerian government on grazing routes
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, has asked the Federal Government to go ahead with its plan to recover the old cattle grazing routes because herdsmen activities affect every part of the country. Adamu, who also served as a two-time governor of Nasarawa State, disagreed with those who argued that the Federal Government should not dabble into grazing issues because it had no constitutional powers to do so. The Senator, who spoke with newsmen in Abuja, said herdsmen needed the cattle routes because of the challenges they usually faced when they wanted to adopt other forms of transportation. He said the Federal Government should attend to the welfare of herdsmen just as it was providing basic amenities for others involved in private businesses across the ...
South-west governors urged to strengthen Amotekun to prevent attacks
The protem chairman of the Coalition of Yoruba Liberation Movement, Yemi Farounbi, has called on south-west governors to strengthen the Western Nigeria Security Network, codenamed Amotekun. He said Amotekun operatives need to be “heavily fortified” so that they can repel the attacks of bandits. Farounbi’s message was contained in a press release which was read at an event held in Ibadan, Oyo state capital, to mark Democracy Day. Speaking on the backdrop of the recent attack in Ondo and Ekiti states, and in Igangan, a rural community in the Ibarapa area of Oyo, Farounbi said the south-west is under attack from the herders and bandits. He said: “We hereby alert our people in Yorubaland and the entire Yoruba race of the impending indirect slavery coming up in the heels of the well-orchestrate...
President Buhari orders IGP to reduce insecurity to barest minimum
President Muhammadu Buhari, has ordered Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba to ensure insecurity is reduced to the barest minimum. This is even as the Police Council made up of the President, Vice President, governors, ministers of Police Affairs, Interior and the Federal Capital Territory, confirmed Baba as the IGP. Minister of Police Affairs, Alhaji Maigari Dingyadi, who confirmed the development at the end of the one and half hours meeting, said he was unanimously confirmed. President Buhari had on April 6, appointed Baba as acting the Inspector General of Police. Baba was a Deputy Inspector General of Police before his promotion. Briefing State House Correspondents at the end of the meeting held at the First Lady Conference Room, the main purpose of the meeting was to “get the appo...
Farmer arrested ‘poisoning’ wells in Yobe
The police in Yobe on Thursday confirmed the arrest of a farmer, Mohammad Mohammad, 25, for allegedly poisoning nine wells in Kasesa village near Damaturu. ASP Dungus Abdulkarim, the Command Spokesman disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Damaturu. ”On May 25, he poured insecticide into nine wells which are sources of water to residents and herds in the area. “ When we collected the well eater as sample and conducted laboratory analysis, we discovered that they were contaminated with fecal Coliforms, which can cause cholera , typhoid and other water borne diseases. “ Therefore, we identified and arrested the suspect today. He will be charged to court soon,” Abdulkarim said. The spokesman said Mohammad confessed to committing the offence, but said his intention was to deter herders...
Ondo governor: No land in southern Nigeria will be ceded to invaders masquerading as herdsmen
The Ondo State Governor and Chairman of the Southern Governors Forum, Mr Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has declared that “no inch of the space delineated and known, currently, as South West, and indeed the whole South, will be ceded to a band of invaders masquerading as herdsmen under any guise.” Akeredolu made the declaration in a statement signed by his Senior Special Assistant Special Duties and Strategies, Dr Doyin Odebowale. The declaration was sequel to a statement signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, on the position of President Muhammadu Buhari, on the farmer-herder clashes and what was termed as “Deep Rooted Solutions to the herdsmen attacks”. Shehu had in the statement revealed the presidency’s position that ranching and revival...
Senator calls for removal of AGF over remarks on herdsmen
Senator representing Osun Central Senatorial District, Dr. Ajibola Basiru, has called for the immediate removal from office of the Attorney General of the Federation, Alhaji Abubakar Malami, SAN, over his argument, equating open grazing with Southerners’ selling spare parts in the North. Dr. Basiru, who spoke in his personal capacity as a patriot and Senator said that, “anyone who cannot rise above primordial sentiments and pursuit of parochial ethnic agenda need not occupy position of trust especially at this time of sectional agitations. It was not dignifying of the status of the nation’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice to make such remarks. The Senator said that equating the activities of nomadic herdsmen, destroying people’s means of livelihood with others, legitimately carryi...
Ohanaeze: No ‘no man’s land’ in Igbo land
The apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, has warned non-Igbo indigenes residing in the South-East to erase ‘no man’s land’ from their minds. President General Of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Prof George Obiozor, stated this during a press briefing at the headquarters of Ohanaeze Ndigbo worldwide in Enugu on Thursday. He also welcomed the formation of South-East security outfit, Ebubeagu, while assuring the governors of the zone of his support. Obiozor said, “Once more, I state that there is no No Man’s land in Igbo land. Land is a very sensitive issue in Igbo land because land has owners including some Igbo Deities. Those encroaching on land in Alaigbo are provoking our people and our Deities.” Obiozor’s comment was a veiled reference to the herdsmen crisis rocking the nat...
Gunmen kill six, injure many in Plateau village
Fresh attack on Thursday night claimed six lives as gunmen opened fire on some villagers at Wereng village, Riyom local government area of Plateau State, killing six and injuring three villagers. The attack occurred at the time villagers returned from their day’s businesses and were preparing to retire for the night when sporadic gunshots jolted them Before the incident, there were rumours being circulated that the villagers may be attacked any moment but it was unclear if security agencies acted on the information. Wereng has consistently been under attack in over a decade now and all appeals for the dastardly act to end have been rebuffed by the attackers. Although Operation Safe Haven on peace mission in the State did not confirm the incident at the time of this report because the spoke...
