Avoid criminal activities or face death sentence, Ganduje tells herders

Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State has warned herders in the state to avoid criminal activities such as cattle rustling and banditry or face death sentence and life imprisonment. The governor stated this yesterday while flagging off this year’s state-wide Mass Cattle and Small Ruminants Vaccination exercise at Kadawa in Garun Mallam Local Government Area of the state.

He said that instead of engaging in conflicts, the herders should embrace modern livestock production and transform from socio-cultural to socio-economic activities to be self-reliant.

“I am happy that we are safe here because we haven’t recorded any farmers/herders clash in Kano. So I urge you to avoid any criminal activity and embrace livestock production. We have made a law in Kano, and anybody found in cattle rustling or banditry will be sentenced to life imprisonment or death,” he said.

Ganduje said the state government was targeting over one million cattle and other animals for vaccination this year in its efforts to boost healthier livestock production in the state.

He said the state government had also employed 220 community animal health workers to guide pastoralists in their activities to boost and transform the sector from socio-cultural to socio-economic development.

The governor said the progress recorded last year had led to rapid development in the sector; hence the need to enhance and improve the number for more success, adding that the development was to complement federal government’s policy to transform the livestock industry.

Also speaking, the deputy governor of the state, Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna, who doubles as the commissioner for agriculture, said the sum of N10billion had been allocated for various livestock activities including vaccination, artificial insemination of 25,000 animals, as well as the construction of dams and housing for herders, among many other things.

Earlier, the managing director of the Kano Rural Development Authority, (KNARDA), Dr Junaidu Yakubu Muhammad, said the activities would be carried out by the Kano State Agro-Postoral Development Project (KSADP) with the support of the Islamic Development Bank.