Herdsmen attacks masterminded by foreigners – IGP says

The Inspector General of Police, IGP, Solomon Arase, has linked recent attacks by suspected Fulani Herdsmen to the influx of foreigners and arms from other African countries, especially the Maghreb.

According to the IGP, the Indigenous Fulani herdsmen are peaceful and had lived with their hosts for years as law abiding citizens.

Arase stated this is an interview with journalists in Abuja, adding that the security agencies were working hard to monitor and degrade them.

The IGP said: “This challenge is situated against the backdrop of what is happening within the African region.

“When you look at the period that these things are happening, you look at the crisis in the Maghreb, then you look at the flow of arms across our borders, what is happening is better explained.

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“Our indigenous herdsmen, who we have been living with for many years, are law abiding people; so why is it  that we have the attacks now that there are crises in Mali, Libya, Chad and all these countries where proliferation of fire arms is more prevalent in the system?

“So we have to look at it against that background. If they have indigenous collaborators or something like that, it doesn’t mean it will get to the level of Boko Haram. We will continue to monitor them, we will continue to degrade them; we will continue to amputate them”, Arase said.

The police boss also reacted to allegations that the N18billion approved by government for the police is either missing or cannot be accounted for, saying the money is meant to pay the

salaries of the 10, 000 policemen, to feed them when they are on training qnd also pay their instructors.

The IGP also said the money will also be used to upgrade facilities in training institutions across the country.

“How can the IG start sharing such money. The money which would be used to pay salaries, how can you touch it?

“With even the TSA policy, how am I going to carry such an amount of money? Do I have a trailer that can carry it and share it with people?

“Some allegations are just funny and you wonder what they are talking about. What I want to let you know is that the money isn’t meant to be shared. It is meant for the people during their training. So you now recruit them and you don’t pay them their salaries; you take them to training institutions and you don’t feed them; you take them to training institutions and you don’t kit them; their instructors and guest instructors you don’t pay them their allowances? The money isn’t meant to be shared it is already earmarked for specific things and it isn’t something you can toy with”, Arase said.

 

 

 

 

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