CITY NEWS Protect each other’s wealth, FCT minister tells farmers, herders
AMAC gets committee against hate speech
The FCT Minister, Muhammad Musa Bello, has called on farmers and herders in the territory to live as brothers and protect each other’s wealth.
Musa, who was represented by the acting director, Community and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Jibrin Shaba, stated this while presenting relief materials to victims of a clash between herders and farmers at Ledi village in Gwagwalada Area Council yesterday.
He said it has become necessary for both farmers and herdsmen to live together peacefully instead of engaging in violence whenever there was a misunderstanding between them.
“It will be difficult to separate a farmer and a herder as they both benefit from each other. A farmer will harvest his crops and sell to a herder, while a herder will slaughter his cow and also sell it to a farmer for consumption.
“But most importantly, I am urging both the herders and farmers to protect each other’s wealth, “he added.
Also speaking, the chairman The Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) chairman, Abdullahi Adamu Candido, has set up a 21-man committee to campaign against hate speech in the area council.
Candido, while inaugurating the ‘Committee on National Unity’, yesterday, urged the members to preach the values of oneness, peace and unity as ingredients for growth and development.
“In the last couple of months there of the council, Alhaji Adamu Mustapha, said he was saddened after he received report that a clash broke out between farmers and herdsmen at the community.
“Gone are the days when human beings were seen as animals in the jungle. And since government is in place, we will not allow this kind of thing to happen again,” he said.
The chairman said his administration was determined to protect lives and property of every individual, irrespective of ethnicity, party or religious affiliation, and urging both seems to be some mistrust among the people that make up this country and there seems to be a kind of bad relationship among the good people of this country,” he said, adding that ensuring a peaceful community was better than providing infrastructure.
He said the members should organise lectures to drive home the importance of peaceful coexistence among residents as no development can take place without peace.
“Without peace and harmony we can’t leave as people, not to think of farmers and herders in the council to maintain peace with each other.
On his part, a House of Representatives member, Alhaji Zakari Angulu Dobi, said both leaders of the Gbagyi and Fulani had for the past one week engaged in dialogue aimed at dousing tension in the community, amidst fears of reprisal attacks.
“We thank God that gradually, we have doused tension from both sides. We visited the scene of the incident to estimate the extent of damage, “he said.
Our reporter learnt that providing infrastructure,” he said.
The members of the committee who are from various ethnic groups are to submit quarterly reports to him on their activities and their efforts in curtailing hate speech in the area council.
The chairman of the committee, John Bawa, reiterated the commitment of the members to ensuring a peaceful atmosphere.
“We will go to all ethnic groups, tribal associations and political classes to ensure that we enthrone peace in AMAC,” he said. a clash broke out last week at Ledi village of the council between herders and farmers, which led to the death of a herder and a farmer sustained injury.
City News gathered that the relief materials procured by the council chairman, included 20 bags of rice, six jerry cans of palm oil, six cartoons of maggi cubes, 15 bags of salt, 20 rubber buckets, 260 new wrappers, 125 pieces of children’s clothes, 22 bundles of mats, six bundles of slippers, 165 pieces of plastic plates and a sum of N450,000 cash.