The Federal Government has been called upon to urgently investigate thoroughly the source of the proliferation of arms and ammunitions into the country which are allegedly being used by some herdsmen and Farmers to cause mayhem.
The Kwara State Chairman of the All Fulani Elites, an umbrella body of educated Fulani’s, Alhaji Magaji Saliu Ahmed made the call in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital during an interview with newsmen on Tuesday.
According to him, the Federal Government should enforce the ban on illegal possession of firearms; get to the source and the manufacturers of the weapons like AK47 before promulgating laws to prosecute those in possession of the weapons.
Alhaji Ahmed expressed concern that despite the presence of different security operatives at Nigeria’s various boarders and an existing law banning the possession of arms and ammunition by unauthorised people, some nomads and farmers are still making use of weapons to carry out their nefarious activities.
The chairman challenged security operatives to go to the Niger Delta region where he claimed is the source of arms proliferation in the country and wondered why none of them have been arrested and charged to court for illegal possession of firearms.
He attributed decay in the leadership in the country to the proliferation of arms which he said, the Federal Government must provide an answer to. He called for National Conference which would involve Fulani non -political associations particularly the Fulani nomads, the farmers, security operatives and other stakeholders in order to find lasting peace to issues of nomads and farmers clashes.
On the issue of establishing a colony for the nomads to rear their cattles, Alhaji Ahmed said the policy would only work if it would be taken up genuinely by the FG without trampling upon constitutional rights and freedom of movement of the people.
He attributed lack of industrialisation to the problem facing the country as most industries have collapsed and therefore called on the government to revamp all moribund industries for maximum production.
Alhaji Ahmed cited countries like Germany where only six percent of the population are feeding the entire country, while in Britain, about three percent are also responsible for the feeding of their population and lamented that despite the fact that many Nigerians are into farming, the government cannot feed her citizens,.
He expressed concern that there is a down ward trend in the relationship between the nomads and the crop farmers which he attributed to the issue of land crisis because both the farmers and the cattle rearer use the same resource which is land as they both need enough land for utilization and the land does not increase therefore, there is the problem of where the nomads will graze and where the farmers will produce their own crops.
