Thursday, 28th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

IPOB backs South East governors on ranching, cautions Miyetti Allah against inflammatory remarks

By Lawrence Njoku, Enugu
13 July 2018   |   4:21 am
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) yesterday backed the South East governors on their rejection of ranching and ban on illegal movement of cattle in the region.It, however, warned the leadership of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria ....

Cattle

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) yesterday backed the South East governors on their rejection of ranching and ban on illegal movement of cattle in the region.It, however, warned the leadership of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) to desist from making inflammatory statements over the governors’ decision in the interest of the people.

The governors, had after their meeting on Sunday in Enugu, rejected ranching in the zone, lamenting the “massive destruction of farmlands with the attendant clashes with farmers.” They equally decried the huge funds they were deploying to compensate farmers whose farms and crops were destroyed by herders, as well as requested an emergency meeting with federal security chiefs, farmers and herdsmen in the region to halt the movements and prevent the clashes.

In a statement in Awka, Anambra State on Wednesday, the herders’ body had described the governor’s decision as “shocking and lacking discretion.”Signed by its leader in the South East, Alhaji Gidado Siddiki, the association stated that the decision did not show “exemplary leadership”, adding that it would not only frustrate them from carrying out their business but “might be suggestive of a kind of suspicion that might undermine the mutuality of the claim of brotherhood.”

But reacting to the comments, IPOB said the “arrogant tone of their statement and implied threat contained therein against Igbo lives and businesses in the north point clearly to an impending hostile response from them.”In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, the group noted that it was both duty and honour-bound not to ignore the threat.

He said:“ We must make it abundantly clear that any attack against Igbo lives and businesses in the north will be met with commensurate response in the south. Threats and large-scale invasions of territories in the Middle Belt may have had the effect of subduing indigenous Tiv resistance to the Fulani hegemonic juggernauts in the zone and total collapse of morale in the West, given what happened at Ado-Ekiti PDP rally on Wednesday, July 11, 2018. One inevitable outcome of any premeditated attack on Igbo people and easterners living in the north will mark the beginning of the apocalyptic end of Nigeria as we know it.”

In this article

0 Comments