Razaq Bamidele
In a concerted effort to douse possible tension misconstrued Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s quit order placed on Fulani herdsmen encroaching the Ondo State Forest Reserves, the Sarkin Fulani of Lagos State and Chairman, Association of Fulani Chiefs in the South Western part of Nigeria, Alhaji (Dr.) Mohammed Abubakar Bambado, has clarified the Governor’s true message to the public.
In a statement personally signed Tuesday and made available to the media in Lagos, the monarch said it is necessary to make the clarification to put the governor’s real intension in its correct context saying, Governor Akeredodu (SAN), never mentioned in his statement that all the Fulani herdsmen should vacate the entire state.
Dr. Bambado, quoting Akeredolu’s tweeter handle explained that the governor specifically referred to those herdsmen living and conducting their cattle rearing businesses within the Government Reserved Forest, asserting that the quit order placed on them is in order and in conformity with global decorum.
Recall that Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN), ordered all the Fulani herdsmen living in the Government Forest Reserves to leave the place within seven days just as he spelt out some other rules and regulations to be fulfilled in conducting their business of cattle rearing in the state.
The regulations include the abolition of rearing their cattle in the night, outlawing under-aged gazing, from parading them on the highways and moving them in the cities. The herdsmen wishing to carry on the animal rearing business, according to the governor, should register with the appropriate authorities.
So, while urging his people across the Western Region and beyond not to panic, the respected Monarch also agreed with the governor on some other steps taken in his message to curtail all forms of security challenges in the state like night rearing of cattle that always lead to the destruction of farmlands, parading the animals on the highways as well as in the towns and public places, admitting that such attitudes are against standard norms globally.
Dr.Bambado, therefore, assured the governor and the good people of Ondo State in particular and the south-west as a whole that, “we Fulani in the region will support the government of the day in all its efforts to eradicate completely, all forms security challenges like kidnapping, banditry, armed robbery, killings and attacks on farmlands that always lead to wanton destruction of food and cash crops.”
The monarch, who urged all and sundry not to take the governor’s quit order out of context, appealed for calm and understanding over the issue at hand admonishing that, “this is the time all the stakeholders in the country should come together, irrespective of their ethnic bias, religious sentiment, political leaning or social affiliations to put the country on the right path towards peace, safety and greatness.”
Concluding, while asserting that the development did not call for controversy, Dr. Bambado stated that, there should not be a cause for alarm over Governor Akeredolu’s quit order on those herdsmen living within the Government Forest Reserves if his statement was correctly interpreted, asserting that, “Akeredolu (SAN) has not ordered the Fulani out of Ondo State, but advised the herdsmen to vacate the Forest Reserves and ply their trade at other permitted areas within the state in accordance with universal standard norms.”