An association of cattle breeders, the Miyetti Allah Kautal, has faulted calls by some Nigerians for the sacking of the service chiefs over claims that they had failed to protect the lives of Nigerians.
In a report monitored in an interview on Channels TV on Monday, July 2, the group labeled those calling for the sack of the service chiefs as corrupt.
The secretary-general of the group, Saleh Al-Hassan, said the security agencies were doing their best to tackle the issue of proliferation of small arms and light weapons in the country.
“We have documented 411 innocent pastoralists killed just in southern Kaduna for nothing. We have documented all the crises but because we want peace and want to promote the culture of peace and forgiveness hoping that our neighbours will continue to allow us to do our business,” Al-Hassan said.
“But the issue of arms and light weapons is a security one. I believe they (security agencies) are on top of it. With the arrests they are making, we must acknowledge the efforts security agencies have put in trying to contain criminality in this country.
“That is why people calling for the removal of service chiefs are either the corrupt politicians or the ones working for them. We should not fall for that gambit.”
Al-Hassan also insisted that herdsmen from other countries had the rights to graze their cattle in Nigeria because of the ECOWAS free trade protocol which guarantees free movement.
He said herdsmen do not recognise international boundaries which he described as colonial creations. You cannot just opt out of a protocol that is integrating the African continent.
The pastoralist movement is not for picnics. They go there to access land resources. Also, these boundaries that you have are colonial boundaries,” he said.
“Some of them (boundaries) don’t mean anything to the herders. So, what we need to do is to domesticate the ECOWAS protocol, begin to enforce it and then we create grazing reserves for trans-human pastoralists.”
