“Fulani Herdsmen Not Responsible For Killings” – Farmer’s Association President

The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) has insisted that the fulani pastoralists were not responsible for the incessant and wanton attacks on farmers and communities by suspected fulani herdsmen.

AFAN also said that they were willing to work with the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) to bring the criminal elements who perpetrate the evil to book.

The AFAN national president, Architect Kabiru Ibrahim, while briefing journalists at the end of the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, stressed the need to address the lingering farmers/herders crisis dogging the sector with a view to paving a way for agriculture to witness remarkable improvement again.

“To further consolidate the growth of the agricultural economy it is prudent to ensure peace between us (farmers) and herdsmen,” he said. Speaking on the killings by suspected herdsmen, Ibrahim said, “In our midst today we are happy to jointly issue the resolution we reached with Miyetti Allah on the insecurity that threatens our business.

“We agreed to work together to expose the criminals from among us to ensure peace and prosperity in Nigeria. The real herdsmen do not carry AK 47, does not raze a whole settlement but desires peace to harness his pastoral activities. We welcome the idea of ranch development with input from the end-users and are amenable to sitting down with experts to add value to government’s effort.”

Also, speaking, national secretary of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Baba Othman Ngelzarma, said that the association did not indulge in violence. He expressed the readiness of the association to work both with AFAN and the government to restore peace between farmers and herdsmen across the country.

“I have to make it abundantly clear, we represent MACBAN, and we are a peaceful association. We have been working together with AFAN in order to bring peace to this country. We don’t control the entire fulanis in Nigeria; we only represent our registered members who are the legitimate pastoralists, the peace loving pastoralists who are doing their peaceful legitimate business of cattle rearing.

“I will never support, I will never condone any criminality, I will never be a party to any criminality, in fact that is the more reason why AFAN has decided to work with us as collaborators to bring peace to this country, so we are in line with what the president of AFAN has said and we are in line with any policy of the federal government that will bring an end to this crisis in Nigeria,” the MACBAN national secretary added.