Herdsmen, farmers clashes can cause war, Gov Umahi, Miyetti Allah boss

Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi and the National Chairman of Myetti Allah, Alhaji Bello Bodejo, have said that the attendant killings of innocent Nigerians occasioned by herdsmen/farmers clashes have the capacity of causing national war, if not properly addressed.

The duo explained that the matter needed cautions and diligent attention, so called for caution in handling the
herdsmen/farmers clashes.

Umahi and Bodejo spoke at the Government House, Abakaliki during an enlarged security meeting over the recent herdsmen/villagers clash in Enyanwu Igwe, Igbeagu community of Izzi local government local government Area which left four persons dead with two in critical conditions.

Umahi, who described the killings in Enyanwu Igwe village in Ebonyi State which claimed four lives as unprovoked killings.

He ordered the herdsmen around the area to leave the place for the attacked villagers to be talked to as to avoid reprisal attack.

The governor said he had embarked on various measures to ensure that the aggrieved people of the area remained calm, noting that they are warriors and could like to retailiate as against the wish of the government at least for the fact that the herdsmen in the area had before now been peaceful.

He said, ”It is unprovoked killings, life is so sacred. You can’t kill people as if they are fowls. Izzi people are warriors, I physically held them not to go for retaliation. The herdsmen there in Izzi have to leave the place for now until I can calm everybody down.

“The way we are going, it can provoke national war and it will not help anybody. If there is reprisal attack, I will hold all the leaders squarely responsible, I will charge all of you for any reprisal attack.

”The lives of every Ebonyian is very dear to me. God forbid, I can’t withstand where 76 people were killed like in Benue, I can’t withstand it. Some people may be fighting to die but we fight to live, lets use wisdom and handle the matter.

“ This is a National problem; we don’t want our people to continue killed. We must use wisdom to handle this problem. It is very easy to say I want all the herdsmen to leave Ebonyi but there are lots of implication”.

He regretted that agreement reached between the state and herdsmen in the area for peaceful co-existence have been destroyed.

“We banned under aged herders, we banned night grazing in the state. We have no grazing routes in Ebonyi which means that nobody has the right to carry cattle by route to Ebonyi state and we agreed on that.

“We also agreed with the herdsmen that the first offender must be prosecuted. We also said that no farmer should go to farm with gun and no herdsmen should rear cattle with gun or matchete, it is stick. We must abide by these rules”, the governor added.

While addressing Umahi, National Chairman of Myetti Allah, Bello Bodejo corroborated with the Governor that incident killings in the country can cause chaos in the country.

He said the state has been very acommodative to the herdsmen, warning that it should not be abused.

He said, “ Ebonyi state is very peaceful and it is accommodating to our members. It has been so accommodating to our members even more than some Northern states of the federation and we condemn these killings in this state . There are minors and migrants who are causing these lots of problems.

“There are also criminals moving as cattle herders who are causing these havoc The Chairman of Myetti Allah of various states in the South – East and South – South are all here and we are not happy with what happened, we condemn these killings in totality.

“Nigeria is confronted with so many security challenges and one of them is the unfortunate farmer/herder conflict. If this conflict is not resolved, it has the potential of throwing this country into unnecessary chaos”.