A Muslim group known as the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has urged the Federal Government to compensate farmers whose crops were destroyed by herdsmen’s cows across the country.
The director of MURIC, Professor Ishaq Akintola, who made this plea in a statement suggested that the compensation could be by installment or any which way the government deems it fit.
According to him, the MURIC now has concrete evidence of the culpability of herdsmen, including video clips in which cows destroyed farms belonging to members of the organization.
Read Also: ‘Kano Deaths Is A Plot To Depopulate Muslims’ – MURIC
We asked our members to supply information on the activities of herdsmen in their states, including Abuja. In fact, we were stupefied by the outcome.”
He also said the mudiir (principal) of a local Arabic school in Lagos also reported another sad incident, in which herders brought cows to invade his father’s cashew farm in Ijomu-Oro, Kwara State.
Speaking on the development, the National Secretary, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN), Baba Othman Ngelzarma, said that the association does not condone injustice either to farmers or to herders.
According to him, the call by MURIC for compensations for farmers has been what MACBAN which its Board of Trustees (BoT) is being headed by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, has been committed to.
‘We as MACBAN have been resolving disagreement between farmers and herders. When we heard of cases of farms being destroyed by cows, we moved in to identify the herder involved and we made them pay compensations. This has worked in Ekiti State and other places,’ he stated.
MURIC had previously advised Miyetti Allah to take responsibility and show good leadership by re-organizing its members into cooperatives and ask the Federal Government for bailouts to buy huge portions of land where they can set up ranches and graze freely.
The group wants the Federal Government to give the cattle rearing industry enough funds to buy land for the establishment of ranches.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
