The Governor of Eki­ti State, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has affirmed the readiness of the citizens of the state to defend them­selves against marauding Fu­lani cattle herdsmen.
Fayose asked residents of the state not to treat with lev­ity the recent threat by the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breed­ers Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), the umbrel­la body of herdsmen in the country, to retaliate the al­leged killing of five cows in the state.
He told the people that the time had come for them to defend themselves and their land against the Fula­ni herdsmen, who he alleged enjoy the backing of the Fed­eral Government.
The governor appealed to the people to emulate their ancestors, who fought the famous Kiriji War and won by doing same to the Fula­ni herdsmen.
Fayose therefore put the state’s border communi­ties on red alert, saying that they have the capacity to de­fend themselves against any reprisal attack by the herds­men.
The governor refuted the group’s claims that the cows were killed.
According to him, the af­fected cows are in the custody of the state government.
In a reaction on Tuesday to the threat issued by Miyet­ti Allah on Saturday after he inaugurated the Ekiti Grazing Law Enforcement Marshals (EGEM), Fayose said that he was surprised that the lives of five cows were more important to Miyetti Allah than hundreds of Nigerians its members had killed in several parts of Nige­ria.
The herdsmen’s group had asked the Federal Govern­ment to intervene in the inau­guration of the marshals, whom they alleged had shot five of their cows “before this maca­bre incident develops into un­quenchable inferno involv­ing our members and the Ekiti State government.”
In the statement signed by its spokesman, Baba Othman Ngelzarma, MACBAN said: “Fayose unleashed the mar­shals against our members whose herds of cattle had gone to a stream at Agon Bridge on Federal Polytechnic Road be­tween 2:00pm and 2:30pm to quench their thirst on Friday, October 21.
“The vigilante group shot five cows and carted away the meat, but the herdsman was able to flee with the rest of his cattle.”
But Fayose, who dismissed Miyetti Allah’s claims as untrue, said that the state government had no apology and admitted that the said five cows were alive and in the custody of the state government.
He also asked why the group failed to write the Pres­ident when its members were killing hundreds in Benue and Plateau States.
“Why didn’t Miyetti Allah, that has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to warn me, the custodian of the man­date of Ekiti people, fail to warn its members when they were killing Nigerians and destroy­ing their farmlands? Are their cows more important than hu­man beings?
“To us in Ekiti, the lives of 5,000 cows cannot be compared to those of human beings that are being killed daily by herds­men across the country. Miyet­ti Allah Cattle Breeders Asso­ciation of Nigeria should know that cattle farmers are not dif­ferent from other farmers. If they want to rear cows in Eki­ti, they should do so in accord­ance with the laws of the state. After all, the law prohibiting the sale and consumption of alco­hol was made in Kano State and it is being enforced while Sharia Law made in some states in the North is also being enforced,” he said.
Governor Fayose decried the Federal Government’s si­lence on the development, say­ing: “Four days after this threat was issued against the govern­ment and people of Ekiti State by the Miyetti Allah, the Fed­eral Government is yet to act in any manner that will disabuse the minds of Ekiti people, who believe that the Federal Govern­ment is in support of the threat.
“The silence of the Federal Government has no doubt fur­ther confirmed the insinuation that there is a plot to give tac­it support to the herdsmen to invade some border towns and villages in Ekiti State and cause chaos in the state to justify the evil agenda of the declaration of a state of emergency on the state,” he said.