The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) yesterday blamed the rampaging activities of herdsmen on the silence of President Muhammadu Buhari.

In a statement, the PFN chairman in Enugu State, Rev. Goddy Madu, described the herdsmen as “Boko Haram in disguise and agents of Islamisation.”

He added: “The recent attack on Attakwu community of Enugu State is what we can no longer condone. It was a deadly and unprovoked attack on a peace-loving community and this happened while we are yet to recover from the massacre at Nimbo.

“We are not happy over the silence of President Buhari over these attacks. He should make a strong statement to stop these wicked attacks by Fulani herdsmen.

“Our people should be security-conscious and protect their churches and villages from these wicked people who kill and suck blood of innocent citizens.”

Similarly, the secretary of the state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Jospeh Ajujungwa, called on the Enugu State House of Assembly and other South-East states to immediately enact laws that would end the deadly activities of herdsmen.

“Ekiti State has taken the lead in this regard and Enugu has suffered from the activities of herdsmen more than Ekiti,” he noted.

Also, the state governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, yesterday inaugurated the state’s Security Committee, chaired by his Special Adviser on Security Matters, Brigadier-General Fred Eze (rtd) to tackle the challenge.

He disclosed that the committee was “charged with the responsibility of taking all necessary and lawful measures to ensure security and lasting peace and harmony among various communities and in all corners of the state.”

Meanwhile, the member representing Kaduna Central in the National Assembly and human rights activist, Senator Shehu Sani, has, in Kaduna, received leaders of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN), urging them to expose those who have taken arms against villages and communities.

He said it was only when they exposed “the very bad eggs that the image of an average Fulani man could be restored.”

They had visited to seek the federal lawmaker’s intervention in their alleged harassment and abandonment by government.

Sani said: “It is a reality that you have been neglected, abandoned and marginalised by successive governments in Nigeria for the past 30 to 40 years. Our people have been in power for decades and it was lack of foresight for them to have come out with policies and programmes that could have addressed the problems of the Fulanis.”

He urged the Federal Government to immediately scrap the National

Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE) and replace it with a broader nomadic commission that would look into the socio-economic activities and welfare of the Fulani just like the Niger Delta Development Commission.

The chairman of MACBAN, Alhaji Haruna Usamn Tuga, had said because of the activities of killer herdsmen, an average Fulani has been demonised.

He pledged to do everything possible to restore the lost glory of the Fulani while saying cattle rustlers endanger them. (The Guardian)

•Photo shows armed herdsmen.

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