Mutual understanding will curb farmer-herder crisis – JDPC

The Justice, Development and Peace Commission (JDPC) of the Catholic Archdiocese of Ibadan has revealed that only mutual understanding between farmers and herders will curb the perennial crisis between the two groups in the country.

This was arrived at after a two-day training with the theme, ‘Strengthening legal knowledge and community collaboration,’ organised for farmers and the Fulani in Ibadan recently.

The head of Integrated Development Programme, the agricultural arm of JDPC, Mr Alaba Ogunbosoye, while speaking, said the training was an opportunity to bring together farmers and Fulani herders from the Oke-Ogun region of Oyo State, to share their perspectives on how they can bring about peaceful neighbourliness between them.

ALSO READ: Abuja man to wash hospital restrooms for 10 days over cheating

Mr Ogunbosoye added that through the training, farmers were able to understand the perspectives of herders, and vice versa, “and this will make it easier to settle differences between them before they escalate.”

Mr Fola Awoyemi, who handled the legal aspect of the training, charged participants to always look at the legal aspect before they do anything.

He said, “The law is against destruction of property, so the herder grazing cattle on farms has violated this law, same for the farmer who willing poisons cattle.

“So we must understand what the law says on certain issues and work so that we don’t go against the law. When this happens, there will be peace between farmers and herders.”

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE