The crisis brewing over open cattle grazing in Nigeria received an added impetus over a letter allegedly written by a ‘Fulani Jihadist’ group to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State giving him three days to rescind his order against open grazing.
The letter, entitled “Fulani Jihadist Warning: An Open Message of 2 Paragraphs To Delta State,” was said to have been posted in strategic locations in Asaba, the state capital.
The letter reads: “This is to inform Delta state that the Fulanis of Usman dan Fodio leadership, shall do everything it can to uphold the legacy of our heritage of open grazing, for we are nomadic people from origination and shall never negotiate the ownership of Nigeria and West Africa and Sub-Sahara.
“We hereby demand the governor of Delta state to immediately withdraw his early stand for the call to ban open grazing in 17 regions in not less than 72hours from the above date and also, withdraw his position as the leading voice for the governors, as no occurrence we don’t have the first-hand information, even before the hosting of the Southern Governors’ meeting in Asaba.
“Failure to adhere to this demand for being the host of the 17 governors, Delta state, most likely the city of Asaba and Agbor, shall encounter severe consequences than that of Bornu, Kebbi, Kastina, Kaduna, Enugu, Benue, Oyo and many more that will not respect the Fulani’s heritage, as we take responsibility for the detonate explosive uncovered in the state capital secretariat, which should serve as a warning to the Delta state government for what is to come, should the governor fail to abide to our demand.
“We highly advise all Fulani’s and Northerners, including the security personnel to leave Delta state as soon as possible for the wind of our action is now present in the land, for failure of the governor to adhere to our call, this shall live us with no choice.”
The letter came a few days after President Muhammadu said in an interview aired on Thursday that he had asked the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami to locate the old law establishing the grazing routes in the country with a view to recovering the land from encroachers and putting the routes into use.
This has opened another phase to the crisis rocking Nigeria, with killings, abduction and ransom taking rising all over the country.
There have been rising cases of conflicts between farmers and herdsmen, as the herders
While the President has given his approval to open grazing, the 19 governors of Southern Nigeria last month reached an agreement to ban the practice in the whole of the south. That decision thus formed the basis of the position of each state government in the region regarding cattle grazing.
In Benue State, governor Samuel Ortom has declared that there are no grazing routes in the state, which has borne the brunt of the fight between herdsmen and farmers.
Speaking over the weekend, Ortom argued that open grazing laws are not in the country’s Constitution.
His counterpart in Bayelsa, Duoye Diri, has echoed the same. According to Diri, Bayelsans, by virtue of their location, are fishermen, so there are no grazing routes in the state.
The governor, therefore, stressed the need for compliance with the state’s anti-open grazing law.
“For us, there are no cattle grazing routes in Bayelsa State. Our people are traditionally and occupationally fishermen. We also have some hunters who will hunt to compliment the fishing. The idea of cattle grazing routes in Bayelsa is very strange to us in this part of the country,” the governor said.
“There may be cattle grazing routes in the north but what is applicable in the north may not be applicable to us in the south. I don’t want to believe we are running a unitary system of government,” Diri said.
“The idea of cattle grazing routes in Bayelsa is very strange to us in this part of the country,” he added.
