Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State has faulted Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue, the South-Western and South-Eastern Governors for their approach to the herders and farmers clash in their various states.
Bala Mohammed said this during on Thursday during the Northern Governor’s Forum meeting, noting that the herders had no other option but go about with AK-47 guns to protect themselves.
“The Fulani man is practicing the tradition of trans-human, pastoralism, he has been exposed to the battery of the forests, the animals, and now, the cattle rustlers, who carry guns, kill him and take away his commonwealth – that is his cows – he had no option than to carry Ak-47 because the society and the government are not protecting him. It is not his fault, it is the fault of the government and the people; you don’t criminalise all of them because in every tribe there are criminals. You should be very sensitive. We have to be careful”, Bala Mohammed said. Read also: Insecurity: We May Wake Up One Day And Not Have A Country – Ortom
Bala Mohammed blamed the S/E and S/W Governors of not being accommodating other tribes. He faulted the quit notice given to Fulani herders in some southern states, particularly Ondo, pointing out that the southern governors are wrong. “On the herders-farmers clashes, you have seen what our colleagues in the South-West are doing and some of them in South-East. Some of us told them with all modesty and humility – you are wrong. But the person that is most wrong is the Governor of Benue State, my brother and my colleague, Governor Ortom; he started all these”, he added. “If you don’t accommodate other tribes we are also accommodating your tribes in Bauchi and other places. We have so many Tiv people working and farming in Alkaleri, farming in Tafawa Balewa, farming in Bogoro Local Government Area of Bauchi; has anyone asked them to go?”
“We have not, because it is their constitutional right to be there. We have Yoruba people in Bauchi for over 150 years, even before the birth of Nigeria. Nobody has told them to go; some of them have risen to become permanent secretaries in Gombe, Bauchi, and Borno”, he added.
“If you don’t accommodate other tribes we are also accommodating your tribes in Bauchi and other places. We have so many Tiv people working and farming in Alkaleri, farming in Tafawa Balewa, farming in Bogoro Local Government Area of Bauchi; has anyone asked them to go?”
