I didn’t call for bloodbath in Benue – MACBAN vice president

The National Vice President of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBA), Malam Husaini Yusuf Bosso has said that he never warned of the possibility of more bloodbath over the anti-grazing law introduced by Governor Samuel Ortom as reported recently in the media

Bosso was quoted in one of the national dailies as warning barely 48 hours after the mass burial of the 73 victims of recent clash that gripped Benue state, that only the scrapping of the antigrazing law would end further bloodbath.

However in an interview with journalists over the development yesterday in Minna, Bosso said, “what I told the journalist who called me from Lagos was that as an association, we wre ready to collaborate with the Benue State government and other stakeholders towards finding an amicable resolution to the crisis.”

He said as an umbrella herder’s association, “we never supported any form of violence from herders in any part of the country where they reside and we cannot therefore begin to encourage bloodbath in Benue, which has become home to our members with some born and breed there.”

He said herders had for many decades cohabited peacefully with natives in Gboko, Katsina Alla, Vandenkiya and other parts of the state before Nigeria independence until now and could hardly trace their roots, adding that the association would do all it could to encourage the communal living that had existed between the two groups for time immemorial.