Herdsmen-Fulani Attacks: FG Tasked on Border Patrol

By Hammed Shittu in Ilorin

Worried by the incessant herdsmen and Fulani herdsmen attacks in some parts of the country,  a former Grand Khadi of the Kwara State,  Shariah Court of Appeal, Justice Abdullahi Idris Haroon (rtd), at the weekend advised the federal government  to rise up to its  responsibility of properly manning the country’s borders with competent personnel to check illegal immigrants particularly herdsmen from other neighboring countries at all times.

Justice Haroon (rtd) gave the advice in Ilorin while speaking with journalists on the state of nation.

Haroon who spoke against the backdrop of the  recent rampant killings by suspected Fulani herdsmen and clashes among farmers and residents of various communities said: “Most of the country’s borders are so porous to the extent that illegal immigrants mostly with questionable characters find easy access into the country.”

He added that “such illegal immigrants had caused havocs to the unity, peace and coexistence of the Nigerian people and warned that if not checked, Nigerians would continue to live in an atmosphere of crimes and criminality.

“Different tribes, Fulani herdsmen and their cattle had lived together since time immemorial without crises and wondered why the present uprising is now going to an extremely dangerous dimension, which according to him, needed urgent intervention of government as well as the entire citizenry.”

 Haroon who is also the proprietor of Al-Mawrid International College, Ilorin,  noted  that “in advanced or civilized countries, a portion of land is carved out for rearing of cattle, adding that “both the farmers, the herdsmen as well as  other categories of Nigerians need one another for mutual benefits as life cannot be disengaged from one another.”

He stressed further that any country that plans any developmental programme according the to the jurist, “has to do it holistically by carrying the youths along.

“The introduction of nomadic education for nomads by the government is a nice and a welcome development, but the programme was not widely felt and not well pursued across the country.

 “If the nomadic education programme was adequately implemented, the crises among the various communities and that of the herdsmen and the farmers would not have arisen or degenerated to alarming and tragic level.”

He however said: “There is an urgent need for the federal government to investigate and probe the sources of sophisticated weapons such as AK47 riffles used by the suspected herdsmen and such weapons could only be handled by trained and enlightened people

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