Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, has said that herdsmen carry AK47 and other arms and ammunition to defend themselves against cattle rustlers.
He also criticised his some of his fellow governors for their shoddy handling of cattle-rearing-related crises in their states.
Mohammed spoke at the closing ceremony of the 2021 Press Week of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Bauchi State Council on Thursday, Feb 11 at the Command Guest House.
The governor faulted the quit notice given to Fulani herdsmen in some southern states, particularly Ondo, adding that it was wrong of the governors to take such a decision.
“You have seen what our colleagues in the South-West are doing and some of them in South-East. Some of us told them with all modesty and humility, ‘you are wrong’.
“But the person that is most wrong is the Governor of Benue State, my brother and my colleague, Governor Ortom. He started all these. If you don’t accommodate other tribes we are also accommodating your people in Bauchi and other places.
“We have so many Tiv people working and farming in Alkaleri, farming in Tafawa Balewa, farming in Bogoro Local Government Area of Bauchi; has anyone asked them to go? We have not, because it is their constitutional rights to be there.
“We have Yoruba people in Bauchi for over 150 years, even before the birth of Nigeria. Nobody has told them to go; some of them have risen to become permanent secretaries in Bauchi, Gombe and Borno.
“And now, the Fulani man is practicing the tradition of trans-human, pastoralism, he has been exposed to the dangers of the forests, the animals, and now, the cattle rustlers, who carry guns, kill him and take away his commonwealth, his cows, he had no option than to carry Ak-47 and defend himself because the society and the government are not protecting him.
“It is not his fault, it is the fault of the government and the people; you don’t criminalise all of them because in every tribe there are criminals. You should be very sensitive.”
