Checking Herdsmen’s Menace In Rivers

The Rivers State House of Assembly, penultimate week, resolved to pass a bill that will check the activities of herdsmen in the state. The House also agreed to liase with security agencies to take necessary measures aimed at guarding against unnecessary clashes between herdsmen and farmers in the State.
These measures, coming under matters of urgent public interest, were necessitated by the increasing cases of clashes between herdsmen and farmers over grazing of cattle in farmlands.
The lawmaker representing Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Constituency II, Hon. Nathaniel Uwaji who suggested the measures, lamented the impunity with which Fulani herdsmen trespass farmlands in his constituency, thus causing serious destruction to crops.
He recalled several interventions made by community leaders to avert what would have resulted to an open battle between herdsmen and farmers in the area.
Given the activities of Fulani herdsmen in the country  in recent time and the fatal consequences therefrom, The Tide supports any measure(s) by the House in form of legislation that will put an end to the wanton destruction of people’s farms by the herdsmen in the State.
We recall that the menace posed by herdsmen in Uwaji’s constituency is not an isolated one. There have been reports of similar incidences across the state.
Last year, the Aluu Community in Ikwerre Local Government Area almost took up arms in self defence over the increasing menace of herdsmen who did  not only destroy  their  crops, but also indulged in illicit activities such as rape and stealing.
Reports of clashes between herdsmen and farmers also abound in other states like Abia, Imo, Ebonyi, Enugu, Delta, Edo, Anambra, Bayelsa, Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, among others. In many of these clashes, several lives were lost and properties worth millions of naira destroyed. Rivers State cannot afford to witness such Armageddon.
A legislation that will regulate the activities of herdsmen in Rivers State is, therefore, a welcome development in view of the fact that other measures put in place to deter the recalcitrant herdsmen have yielded no results.
We note that in view of the dastardly acts of the Fulani herdsmen, Ekiti State had already passed a law regulating the activities of herdsmen, while others like Abia, Ebonyi and Anambra are on the verge of enacting similar legislations.
The Tide is particularly worried by the reports that some herdsmen carry deadly and sophisticated weapons like AK 47, pump action rifles and daggers while on their grazing sojourn. This, according to reports, gave impetus for the invasion of communities in Enugu, Plateau, Zamfara, Benue and Kaduna States, where innocent citizens were killed and properties worth millions of Naira destroyed by the herdsmen.
While we condemn the brazen impunity being displayed by the Fulani herdsmen in destroying people’s farms, we also take exception to the Federal Government’s refusal to muster sufficient political will to decisively deal with the menace posed by herdsmen in the country.
As Nigerians await the passing of the National Grazing Reserve Bill into law, we also expect that culprits in all the killings that were associated with herdsmen – farmers clashes across the country would be prosecuted as soon as possible to serve as a deterrent to others.