Ganduje faults Northern elders’ recall of Fulani
GAFDAN claims 3,500 herders detained in Nigeria Anglican women urge govt to tackle youth unemployment
GOVERNOR Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State has described the recall of Northerners, especially the Fulani herders, from the southern part of the country as unpatriotic and retrogressive.
In the height of unrest between herders and farmers in the south, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and Coalition of Northern Forum (CNF) called Fulani herders to return to the North to curtail the killings.
Vehemently rejecting the
position, Ganduje insisted that regardless of ethnic or religious inclination, Nigerians possess the right to reside in any part of the country, without fear of attack or molestation.
The governor spoke yesterday when he hosted the Igbo community in Kano to a special dinner in honour of Eze Ndigbo Kano, Igwe Boniface Ibekwe, on his 10th Ofala, at the Government House. Ganduje, who was worried about the roaming of herdsmen with their livestock, said that was the major reason the federal government was rooting for the establishment of Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) settlements.
“We don’t share the sane feeling with those who are calling on the Fulani to leave the South because people have a choice, as far as the Nigerian constitution is concerned, to live wherever they choose,” he said.
The Eze Ndigbo Kano, who also rejected the idea of recalling Fulani from the South, asserted that such interest might put the lives of southerners residing in the Northern in danger.
In a related development, Gan-allah Fulani Development Association of Nigeria (GAFDAN) has claimed that over 3,500 Fulani were detained in various cells across the country, and that the Fulani have been stereotyped as killers and are arrested at will by security agencies. According to the umbrella group for Fulani ethnic organisations in Nigeria, Fulani people are seen as the black sheep who must be punished, even for offences they never committed.
Chairman of GAFDAN, Alhaji Saleh Bayeri, told journalists yesterday in Kaduna that the federal government and security agencies needed to do something fast to buckle the dangerous trend, while Fulani people in detention must be charged to court.
“There are over 3,500 Fulani herdsmen in detention in various security posts. Our opponents, despite ongoing killings between herdsmen and farmers, are alleging that herdsmen are killing the farmers and security agents because of government’s influence; that because government is headed by a Fulani, no prosecution or arrest had been made.”
GLOBAL Integrity Crusade Network (GICN) has condemned alleged moves to blackmail the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, in the guise of whistle-blowing.
Chairman, Board of Trustees/president of the group, Mr. Edward Omaga, who spoke with reporters in Abuja yesterday, urged the CBN chief not to be distracted from discharging the onerous task of ensuring stability in the country’s financial system.
Omaga wondered how some persons who neither work with anti-graft agencies nor have any business with private investigation could falsely allege on different occasions that Emefiele and other officials of the apex bank connived to steal billions of naira.