INSECURITY: S’East govs ban herders who move with AK-47 rifles, other weapons

Following attacks and killings by suspected herdsmen, the governors of the five states of the South-East part of Nigeria, on Saturday announced a ban on herders moving around with AK-47 rifles and other deadly weapons in the region.

The chairman of the South-East Governors Forum and Ebonyi State governor, David Umahi, revealed this to newsmen at the end of the forum’s meeting in Enugu State.

Umahi also said that the governors of the region had sought a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari and security chiefs to talk about the worrying insecurity situation in the zone.

Present at the meeting in Enugu where the governors reached the decisions were governors of Ebonyi, Anambra, Imo and Enugu states as well as the deputy governor of Abia State.

“We have banned herders who move around with AK-47 and machetes and we want the security agencies to enforce the order.

“We also agreed that we have to put measures in place to restrain movement of herdsmen and their cattle from one state to another which is a source and point of conflict with the natives and farmers,” he said.

According to the Ebonyi State governor, the governors also resolved at the meeting to have a joint air surveillance in the zone with the security agencies to flush bandits out of the region.

Meanwhile, Umahi refuted claims by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) that the South-East governors conspired with the Nigerian Government to deploy Operation Python Dance in the region in 2017.

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Many members of IPOB were allegedly killed in the region while the operation lasted.

IPOB had given that as part of the reason its members attacked a former deputy president of the Nigerian Senate, Ike Ekweremadu in Germany recently. The group had also vowed to attack any South-East governor that dared travel abroad.

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