Worried that the Enugu State governor Mr. Peter Mbah is widely reported to have concluded plans to set up permanent grazing settlements in Enugu to donate to Fulani herders including Fulani migrants from neighbouring West African nations of Mali, Niger and Mauritania, the Enugu State governor has been warned to perish the evil idea since actualizing such a despicable and destructive initiative will set off a permanent ethnic warfare in Igboland.

Similarly, the prominent civil rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), which issued the caution, has also urged all the governors of Igbo states to shun all entreaties by the Federal Government to be bribed into agreeing to set up Fulani Ruga settlements in their domains because according to the rights group, attracting these settlements in Igboland will allow for the infiltration of war mongers and terrorists from Mauritania, Mali, Niger and central African Republic who share the same ethno-cultural affiliation with the Fulani that are Indigenous to Nigeria.

HURIWA which cautioned Mr. Peter Mbah of Enugu State to discontinue that alleged satanic plot to set up Fulani Ruga in Enugu State, has also asked the governor to personally take a trip discreetly to Southern Kaduna beginning from Kafanchan in Jemaa Local Government Area of Kaduna State and to conduct on the spots investigation of the experiences of the natives of Southern Kaduna State in the hands of Fulani settlers whom they generously accommodated within their communities many years back but who have since turned against the Indigenous Christian farming communities including hiring killer armed Fulani terrorists from outside of Nigeria to unleash violent attacks in Southern Kaduna so as to take over landed assets of the Indigenous Southern Kaduna natives.

HURIWA affirmed that there was a time that the Kaduna State administration headed by a Fulani born governor created first class emirates deep inside of Christian dominated Southern Kaduna territory for Fulani settlers even when the Indigenous chiefdoms of the natives are classified as second and third class by the state government. The Rights group therefore warned that if Ruga Fulani settlements are built in the South East, it means that Fulani Emirates would inevitably be carved out for the settlers and this would change the ethno-cultural demographic make-up of Igboland.”

“HURIWA wants to remind the Enugu State governor about the revelation made by the erstwhile bellicose governor of Kaduna State Mallam Nassir El-Ruffai who stated that he had to travel to a location outside of Nigeria in the West African region, to pay off armed Fulani terrorists who were engaged to kill off Southern Kaduna Christians. Can we also inform Peter Mbah that even after the then Kaduna State governor bribed the killer migrant Fulani terrorists to stop killing Christians of Southern Kaduna origin, these killer herders refused to listen to El-Ruffai and continued with their blood cuddling violent attacks in Southern Kaduna killing over 5,000 indigenes throughout the 8 year tenures of that governor. So is this what the Enugu State governor is planning to introduce in Enugu State which is obviously the capital of Igboland?”

HURIWA recalled too that the chairman of Anambra Industrial Cluster, Awada-Obosi in Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State, Chief Johnson Okolo, had expressed his opposition to the proposed plan by Federal Government to establish Ruga, a policy of government aimed at reducing herder-farmer clashes introduced by the Muhammadu Buhari administration, in the South-East.

Okolo, in an interview with South-East correspondent in Onitsha, on Tuesday, said any state governor in the South-East planning to establish Ruga in the region, especially in Enugu State, should cancel such plans because such will fuel insecurity in the region.

He, Mr.Okolo said Ruga encourages herdsmen attack and anywhere such is located, the host community is in danger.

HURIWA recalled that the entrepreneur rightly said, “I am a victim of herdsmen attacks. They used their cattle to destroy 6,000 palm trees, 300 oranges and 300 cashew trees which I planted on my farm at Amofia Afa in Udi Local Government Area in terms of what they called ranching.

I have said it time without number, what is the interest of the Federal Government in the business of ruga or ranch. It is not Enugu State people or South-East people that own ranch or ruga. Why will the Federal Government want to buy land.”

HURIWA which backed the aforementioned well-thought-out position of Chief Johnson Okolo, warned that it is antithetical to the principle of free market economy that Nigeria practices, for the Federal government to use public fund to purchase lands and then build up facilities within the settlements and then donate it to commercial Fulani herders under the guise of attempting to resolve the persistent terrorism of armed herders targeting farmers. HURIWA condemned this initiative as discriminatory and abominable which must be consigned to the dustbin of history if Nigeria must witness peace and prosperity amongst all ethnic nationalities.

The Rights group said If this president Tinubu’s government has accepted the poisonous chalice introduced by the infamous immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari in the name of Ruga settlements, then we are calling on the people of South East to actively resist this sinister attempt to smuggle into Igboland, armed Fulani insurrection agents, who will come in as commercial herders but are actually land grabbers and terrorists.

“We the Igbos must collectively reject this satanic initiative to start off Ruga Fulani in any part of Igboland by government. If the Fulani herders intends to buy lands in any part of Nigeria, let the forces of demand and supply determine their choice and not for the Federal or state governments to corruptly divert public funds to illegally set up settlements for these people as if they owned Nigeria. We urge civil rights organisations and ethnic people of South East to head to the courts of competent jurisdiction to obtain restraining injunctions against the setting up of Ruga settlements in South East as this constitutes a fundamental abuse of the rights of the Igbo people to own their movable and immovable property in Igboland.”

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