The South East Chairman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria MACBAN, Alhaji Gidado Sidikki, said the association had no hand in the ongoing food blockade to Southern Nigeria from the North as being rumoured.
Sidikki, who was speaking to newsmen in Awka, the Anambra State capital while reacting to the statement credited to Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State, ordering the traditional rulers, state vigilante group, Police and other security agencies to treat any cattle herders found with AK-47 as armed robbers in the state.
According to him, the order is in line with the already established agreement between the South-East governors and the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, that any herder found with a gun should be treated as a criminal.
He said that the leadership of Miyetti Allah in the South-East under his watch screens any cattle herder that comes into the region before he would be allowed to graze.
“My members have been having a good relationship with their host communities, in spite of some isolated cases of misunderstanding, which are normal in every human existence. Our interest in the zone is purely economic,” adding that no herder was interested in contesting the ownership of land with members of their host communities.
He appealed to the host communities not to use the order as an opportunity to kill and destroy properties of law-abiding Fulani herdsmen living in the region.
Speaking further on the food blockade, Sidikki disclosed that the Amalgamated Union of Food And Cattle Dealers Association of Nigeria was behind the blockade and not Miyetti Allah as being speculated.
According to Sidikki, the Amalgamated Union had written a letter earlier informing Miyetti Allah that they will embark on a protest against the incessant killings and destruction of their members properties in various parts of the country.
“So, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, as a body, has no hand in the ongoing blockade of foodstuffs from the north to southern Nigeria,” he stated.
He urged the government to dialogue with the foodstuff dealers to call off their action for the sake of the poor.
While commending state governments in the South-East for securing the area against banditry, Sidikki noted that much still needed to be done to ensure that law-abiding citizens, including herders were free to carry out their business without hindrance in order to make life better for every Nigerian.