OVER 15,000 PASTORALISTS KILLED BY CATTLE RUSTLING, BANDITRY WITHIN THE LAST 8 YEARS 25-02-22
By Sadiq Aminu Over fifteen thousand pastoralists have been killed due to cattle rustling kidnapping, farmer harder crises and banditry within the last eight years in Nigeria.
Similarly over four million cow have been lost to cattle rustling and kidnapping within the same period under review.
National President Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria MACBAN Baba Othman Ngelzarma stated this while addressing Newsmen on food crisis after their Emergency National Executive Council Meeting held at Paikoro Local Government Area of Niger state.
Baba Othman Ngelzarma lamented that though a lot of Nigerians have been decieved in to seing an average pastoralist as criminal not knowing that they also victims because they serve as the recieving end, while insisting that in every tribe there must be some bad eggs.
On why members of MACBAN have not spoken since on food crises, he said they have been consulting which led to the establishment of a business arm called MACBAN CONCEPT AND SOLUTIONS LIMITED to present their new thinking as a business group and not as a cultural body.
Baba Othman Ngelzarma explained that very soon MACBAN is going to invite critical stakeholders especially traders from major markets in Nigeria to chart a way forward in providing lasting solution to the problem of food crisis bedeviling the country.
According to him him the leadership of pastoralists group in Nigeria under the Coalition of Pastoralists Group will soon converge on Abuja in an enlarged meeting to discuss way forward regarding youth restiveness among the pastoralists throughout the country.
The National President Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria MACBAN further said that the meeting deliberated extensively on how to fish out bad eggs among the Pastoralists fold as well as how to sensitive them against the use of drugs and check proliferation of small arms and light weapons as use of illicit drugs within the pastoral community.
Baba Othman Ngelzarma while appreciating the Nigerian Army for it’s role in safeguarding the country would also wants the senior military officers to talk to the junior officers towards checking their excesses whom due to overzealousness sometime goes contrary to the rule of engagements.