The Governor of Bauchi State, Bala, Mohammed has justified carrying of AK-47 by Fulani herders.
He said that the herders have no option than carry AK-47 to defend themselves against attackers, chiefly cattle rustlers.
Governor of South-West and South-East recently banned open grazing in their states. The same step had since been taken by Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom, who had constantly condemned the activities of killer herdsmen.
But Governor Mohammed, who spoke on Thursday at the closing ceremony of the 2021 Press Week of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Bauchi State Council and held at the Command Guest House in the state, said that the actions of the South-West governors and that of some governors from the South-East were wrong.
The Bauchi State governor said actions taking by his Benue state counterpart, Ortom was the ‘most wrong’ of all.
The governor, who stated this in his keynote address at the event with the theme, ‘The role of the media in promoting peace in Nigeria,’ applauded journalists in Bauchi for their balanced reporting.
He said: “On the herders-farmers clashes, you have seen what our colleagues in the South-West are doing and some of them in South-East. Some of us told them with all modesty and humility – you are wrong.
“But the person that is most wrong is the Governor of Benue State, my brother and my colleague, Governor (Samuel) Ortom; he started all these. If you don’t accommodate other tribes we are also accommodating your people in Bauchi and other places.
“We have so many Tiv people working and farming in Alkaleri, farming in Tafawa Balewa, farming in Bogoro Local Government Area of Bauchi; has anyone asked them to go? We have not, because it is their constitutional rights to be there.
“We have Yoruba people in Bauchi for over 150 years, even before the birth of Nigeria. Nobody has told them to go; some of them have risen to become permanent secretaries in Bauchi, Gombe and Borno.
“And now, the Fulani man is practicing the tradition of trans-human, pastoralism, he has been exposed to the dangers of the forests, the animals, and now, the cattle rustlers, who carry guns, kill him and take away his commonwealth, his cows, he had no option than to carry Ak-47 and defend himself because the society and the government are not protecting him.
“It is not his fault, it is the fault of the government and the people; you don’t criminalise all of them because in every tribe there are criminals. You should be very sensitive.”