The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) in Plateau state, have expressed concern over the use of poison as weapon of war.

This came as MACBAN secretary in Mangu, Musa Mohammed alleged that at least 26 cattle were reportedly poisoned around the INEC office in Mangu Local Government Area of the State.

This is in addition to the same incident that happened in Bassa.

Muhammad stated that the latest incident occurred around 1:30 pm when over 950 cattle were grazing in the area.

According to the MACBAN secretary, all security heads in the local government area, including the Commander of Sector 3, the DPO, and the OC DSS office in Mangu, were informed and visited the scene.

MACBAN accused the Mwaghavul youths of poisoning the cattle, an accusation the group denied.

Director Of Public Affairs, Mwaghavul Youth Movement, Jo?l Sunday Tubwot, told our correspondent that Mwaghavul youths do not poison cows.

According to him, the Fulani would deliberately push their cows into farms where pesticides were used on to treat infested crops and in the process they get poisoned.

He said, ?You know there are pesticides that farmers normally apply on their crops like potatoes, paper and tomatoes. There are times that your crops are infested and if you don?t apply pesticides the crops will not do well.

?From your investigation, you might have come across stories where Fulani will just push their cows into farms, and they will eat them up.

?Those pesticides are normally applied not with any evil intention; it is just for the crops to do very well. And in the case whereby the Fulani would push their cows into someone?s farm and they would eat it and die or anything happens to them, they have nobody to blame

?And that is exactly what happened. They said the thing happened behind INEC Mangu. It?s an open place very close to people?s house. And that place is an irrigation area. People do farm around there.

?So how did the farmers or how did people, get to poison the cows in that kind of environment. And definitely if cows were not pushed there, if cows were not pushed into people?s farms,

?If the cows had not gone to eat those crops, I don?t think such would have happened.

Secretary of Ja?amatu Nasril Islam, (JNI), Dr. Salim Umar, described it as a dangerous trend, saying that it has the potential to prolong the conflict with unprecedented consequences for communities involved.

Meanwhile , the Coalition of Fulani Registered Organizations Plateau State Chapter, has said that its recent press statement in Kaduna on the killings in the state was misrepresented and taken out of context.

Chairman, Garba Abdullahi Muhammad, said in a statement that their address was not confrontational, nor was it designed to threaten or impose any preconditions.

?Rather, it was a heartfelt and evident-based appeal to the relevant authorities, security sector, the general public, and the international community to intervene and bring an end to the gross injustices being inflicted upon innocent members of the Fulani community in Bokkos LGA.?

In a related development, a herder has been reportedly identified as Hamza Sulaiman, has been reportedly killed when gunmen opened fire on grazing animals around Shen community of Jos South local government area of the state.

State Chairman of Gan Allah Fulani Development Association (GAFDAN), and Chairman Coalition of Fulani Registered Organizations, Garba Abdullahi, who confirmed the incident on Tuesday, said three cattle and Sheep were also shot death during the incident.

The chairman said the incident occurred 12:30 on Monday, when the deceased and other herders were grazing their cattle. (Daily Sun)

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