The Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone 4, Oshodi Glover, has deployed over 60 personnel of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) to Plateau, Nasarawa and Benue states.

The police chief says SARS officials, who are trained in the act of human right protection, were among those deployed for internal security, fight against insurgents and herdsmen in the states in north-central Nigeria.

He hinted that the three-day training of the officers was at instance of the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris.

Mr Glover added that the training was consequent to allegation by the Amnesty International, alleging human right abuses and torture by SARS officers.

He further explained the rationale for the early deployment of police personnel to rural communities this year ahead of the dry season, saying it was aimed at forestalling the yearly clashes between herdsmen and local farming communities, when the herdsmen come down the Benue valley for greener pasture.

In a related development, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) comprising Fulani cattle herders is spoiling for a showdown with Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State.

They are angry with him over the introduction of the Ekiti Grazing Enforcement Marshals (EGEM), a vigilance group tasked with ‘arresting’ cows found invading and damaging farms in the state.

The association branded Fayose’s action unscrupulous and targeted at “our members who are bona fide citizens of the country.”

Baba Othman Ngelzarma, spokesman for the group in a statement yesterday said, “the anti-malu vigilante group shot five cows and carted away the meat but the herdsman was able to flee with the rest of his cattle.”

Continuing, MACBAN said: “As far as we know, Ekiti State is not an island of its own , but a state within the Federal Republic of Nigeria and while the Governor is permitted to carry out actions geared towards protecting the interest of Ekiti State, such actions should follow the rule of law.

“We deplore this act of brigandage and call on Governor Fayose to offer an unreserved apology to MACBAN, and equally set machinery in motion with a view to compensating our members who lost five cows in this primitive adventure.

“That the brutality of the Ekiti Grazing enforcement marshals (popularly known as Anti- malu) on herdsmen is even outside the time stipulated by that law (if the law exists at all).

“The federal government should therefore look into the actions and activities of this committee because we cannot fold our hands while the only means of survival of our members is taken away and destroyed.

“We are hereby constrained to implore the federal government through its security agencies to wade into this unprovoked and primitive aggression against our members, before this macabre incident develops into unquenchable inferno involving our members and Ekiti State government.

However, the group sympathised with the government of Kaduna State, and the people of Kaduna South over the recent attack on Godogodo community by people suspected to be Fulani herdsmen.

•Pieced together from reports by Channels TV and The Nation. Photo shows Fulani herdsmen.

Update news