The Urhobo Progress Union (UPU), worldwide, has called on the Federal Government to ban the grazing of cattle and herdsmen across the country to put an end to violent clashes between farmers and criminal herdsmen.
The apex Urhobo socio-cultural group said that was the only way to halt the criminality by bad eggs in the midst of primordial pastoralists.
This is just as the UPU has also called on the FG to decentralise the Nigerian Police Force or risk plunging the country into anarchy.
UPU made the call in a statement signed by its President-General, Olorogun Moses Taiga, and made available to journalists in Delta State.
He urged the government to find a permanent solution to the activities of suspected killer Fulani herdsmen who have been engaging in kidnappings, rape of women in their host communities and the destruction of their crops.
He noted that the scars of the herdsmen were still visible in Urhobo towns and villages, such as Abraka, Uwheru and Olomu, among others.
“UPU totally supports the suggestion of the Governor of Kano State, Abdulahi Ganduje, on the making a law to ban the movement of cattle and herdsmen across the country to put an end to farmers-herdsmen clashes and also stop the criminality by bad eggs in their midst.
“The herdsmen should embrace the RUGA settlement the Kano government has built. To ensure law and order, the Kano governor has abolished grazing at night to check criminal-minded herdsmen. Night grazing has been one of the complaints against herdsmen,” the union averred.
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He, however, warned that while “every Nigerian is free to come to Urhobo for economic pursuit, criminals are not welcomed in Urhobo land. We are peace-loving people.”
Speaking further on the decentralisation of the police, the Union observed that it was apparent that the nation’s current security architecture could no longer cope with the current challenges and that the entire policing system in the country should be overhauled.
“The level of insecurity in Nigeria has become worrisome. From Sokoto to Zamfara, Katsina, Taraba in the North, down to Ondo, Edo, Oyo and our beloved Delta, particularly Urhobo land, in the South, the story is the same: kidnappings, armed robberies, cult wars, killer herdsmen, farmers-herders’ clashes and communal strife are rife.
“The police structure with a central command is no longer effective and appropriate to tackle our current internal security challenges.
“Already, all forms of security outfits are springing up in states and communities to deal with their peculiar security situation.
“The executive and legislature need to move faster and formalise the decentralisation of the policing architecture in Nigeria, as we have in the United States, the United Kingdom and other big multi-racial or multi-ethnic countries like Nigeria before the current haphazard springing up of security outfits degenerates into anarchy,” it warned.
UPU calls on FG to ban cattle grazing, decentralise police to stem anarchy
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