Senate resumes Tuesday, to debate herdsmen crisis

The Senate will discuss the crisis that had trailed the activities of Fulani herdsmen across the country on Tuesday.

The National Assembly is expected to resume from the Christmas and New Year holiday on Tuesday.

The Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, who disclosed this to journalists on Monday, said his deputy, Ajayi Boroffice, would come up with a motion on the matter at the resumption of plenary.

Borrofice is representing Ondo North in the Red Chamber.

The Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, had last month given the herdsmen a seven-day notice to quit the state’s forest reserves.

The presidency later described the quit order given to the herdsmen as unconstitutional and called for restraint on the part of the state government.

However, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum had insisted that the governor was misquoted by a section of the media on the matter.

A few days later, a grassroots politician in Oyo State, Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho, led a group of youths to eject leaders of some Fulani settlements in Igangan, Ibarapa local government area of the state.

At least two persons were killed and properties worth millions of naira were destroyed in the violence.

The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, later ordered Igboho’s arrest over his alleged involvement in the incident.

But the Senate leader urged the Federal Government to encourage local political leaders to resolve the crisis.

READ ALSO: Fulani group threatens war if herdsmen are evicted from Ondo Forest Reserves

He said: “This is a kind of crisis that is tending towards governance trajectory where some political actors and ethnic entrepreneurs are coming into the process and spoiling the waters.

“These are existential issues that have set communities that have hitherto been living together peacefully, against each other, either for political advantage or political matters.

“These are issues that should be resolved at the local level either through dialogue or give and take.

“They are people that had lived together, they should come together and engage in a dialogue.

“The Federal Government is too distant to resolve every communal dispute everywhere. Inter-communal disputes should be resolved by the people in the area.

“They should be resolved by political leaders at the level of the National Assembly, at the level of the governors, local government councilors to sit down with their people so that a lot of these issues can be articulated and addressed by the local population.

“This is what the governors at their levels should do not to always run to the presidency, to solve one dispute here and there. How many arms does the Federal Government have?

“This is a federation and we are all politically responsible leaders. At the various levels where they are they should sit down and talk to one another on this disputes.

“I can assure you that in no distant time these inter-communal conflagrations would be resolved. I think the way it may be resolved is in the interest of this country’s unity and integrity.

“There would be hopefully tomorrow (Tuesday) or Wednesday a general motion will be sponsored by the Deputy Senate Leader, Ajayi Boroffice. He will come with a motion on the issue on the floor of the Senate tomorrow.”

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