Herdsmen: Rivers to hold town hall meeting

Following persistent clashes rocking several parts of the country between Fulani herdsmen and farmers and government intervention plans to clamp down on it, Governor  Nyesom Wike has disclosed he had concluded plans to hold a town hall meeting state soon.

Disclosing the position on Tuesday in Port Harcourt during a security townhall meeting held at the Police Officers Mess at the instance of the state Commissioner of Police. Musa Kimo, Wike represented by his Commissioner for Community and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon John Bazia, called on both parties not to take the law into their hands, while government, on his part, should be proactive on laws that would ensure that herdsmen paid for any crops damaged by their cattle, as well as the farmer paid for any damage mated on the cattle by him.

Observing that as important as the cows were to the herdsmen, so also the crops to the farmers, and so society cannot do without both.

Musa Kimo charged community leaders and the parties involved, as well as individual to assist the security agencies, through constant information among the herdsmen and the farmers or any suspected criminal activities to the nearest law enforcement agency.

Promising to fight criminalities in the state to the barest minimum, Kimo noted that since the both activities were essential parts of the economy, the law had to consider them likewise. He admitted that the police could not do without the general public, and that the meeting was aimed at fostering lasting peace.

The Rivers State Controller of Immigration, Controller Ismaila Haliru Abdulmumuni, identified four key factors which were land reform policy, grazing, factorisation and culture, to be parts of the problems bedevilling the country and call on the Federal Government to intervene.