By Marie-Therese Nanlong

Jos — A pan-Igbo socio-cultural organisation and an affiliate of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Izu-Umunna Cultural Association of Nigeria, has warned against the creation of grazing reserves/routes for Fulani herdsmen in any part of Igbo land.

The group said that Igbo would resist any attempt to set aside any part of Igbo land for the purpose of creating grazing reserve or routes or through any appellation or guise whatsoever as “the violent quest for grazing reserves by Hausa/Fulani herdsmen outside their geopolitical zones of origin is nothing but a territorial expansionist agenda”

In a memo to the South-East delegates at the ongoing National Conference jointly signed by the President, Prof. Zebulon Okoye and Secretary, Chief Elvis Chukwu respectively in Jos yesterday, they drew attention to “the various schemes currently being adopted by the protagonists to actualise the grazing reserve project either by default (through acquiescence or forceful occupation of farmlands by armed Fulani herdsmen) or by legislation.

“Going by the established trend in the history of the founding of Hausa/Fulani settlements among non-Hausa/Fulani host populations in the north, Fulani settlers would not only dislodge the indigenous population of any officially designated grazing reserve but also would, after a period of residence, claim political autonomy.

”In due cause, they would demand to be governed by Sharia law and for the inclusion of the same in the law of the host state since, as Muslims, they would not want to be subjected to the customary law that operates in their host state.

”Igbo cannot cede their farmland for grazing reserves on the account of very serious arable land constraints. The little arable land available in most southern states is not only effectively occupied but is in actual fact insufficient to meet the demands of local farmers.”