Miyetti Allah canvasses special education programme for Fulani children

Malam Ibrahim Suleman, the Zamfara Chairman of  Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, has urged the state government to encourage  Fulani children to go to school, saying education is the permanent solution to the rising wave of insecurity in the state.

Suleman, who made the call at a stakeholder’s meeting held in Gusau on Wednesday, said most of the Fulani children indulging in criminal activities such as banditry were doing so due to ignorance and poor parenting.

He stressed the need for parents and government to collaborate by ensuring that nomadic children acquire sound education that can make them compete favourably with other children in the state.

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He said: “it is only when nomadic children are educated lasting peace can be achieved in the state.”

Ardo Babuga, a Fulani Leader in Tsafe Local Government Area of the state, pointed out that mediating or dialoguing with the bandits was a very difficult task.

Babuga said the Fulani community had suffered most from the activities of bandits, saying thousands of their cattle had been rustled, many of them displaced and their women and children kidnapped.

“We are not safe from these bandits, I am personally living as a refugee in Tsafe as a result of incessant bandits’ attacks, ” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting involved key stakeholders including the police and other security agencies, traditional and religious leaders.

It was aimed at finding solutions to the incessant banditry and kidnappings in the state which had led to a loss of lives and displacement of thousands of residents.