BY FRANCIS IGATA,ENUGU

In Enugu State,the unbridled activities of Fulani Herdsmen have inflicted pain,displaced individuals and communities even as there is growing perception of active connivance with the police which accounts for the lackluster disposition police adopts whenever there is an incident.

The Enugu State House of Assembly had in 2014 introduced a bill that seeks to regulate cattle rearing in the state. Herdsmen who take their cattle to unauthorized areas would be guilty of a criminal offence. Grazing areas would be marked and any grazing outside the approved areas would amount to breach of the law and punishable under the law.

The bill entitled ‘A law to make provisions for the control of nomadic cattle rearing in Enugu State and other matters related thereto’ was sponsored by the Chairman, House Committee on Agriculture, and member representing the Nsukka East Constituency, Chinedu Nwamba.

The bill made provisions for the establishment of grazing reserves for cattle rearers in all the 17 local government areas of the state. The then Speaker of the Enugu State House of Assembly, Eugene Odo, had dispelled insinuations that the bill was just targeted at Fulani herdsmen. Odo rather said the proposed law was aimed at promoting peace, mutual cooperation and security in Enugu State. Odo had said, “I want to assure everybody that this bill is not meant for any section of the country; it is not meant for any tribe or any clan. “The motive is not against any tribe in this country. “It is solely meant to control nomadic cattle rearing in Enugu State and all of us know that people from all parts of the country are involved in cattle rearing. Down here, our people rear our own specie of cattle, so they are equally involved.

“This bill is not against the Hausas or the Fulanis; that is why we have called all the stakeholders so that we discuss, get your input before   the bill is passed.” “We are all witnesses to the reports we get on daily basis on the menace of cattle rearers; some of them are said to be involved in robbery, raping of women and all sorts of crime. “They equally use the cattle to cause obstruction on the highways and in such cases one will be left to wonder the grass they are looking for on the highway.”

The sponsor of the bill, Nwamba, said when passed into law, the bill would “promote peace, provide job opportunities as well an avenue for industrial revolution.” He added that, beyond the security implications, the bill was also informed by the health hazards occasioned by unregulated cattle rearing. Nwamba said, “Ebola Virus Disease came from animals, if we can’t control animals – they can transport diseases from one place to another.

“We are not saying we don’t want cattle rearing in Enugu State, but it has to be regulated.”

THE BILL DEAD ON ARRIVIAL

Saturday Vanguard investigation at the Enugu State House of Assembly showed that the political will to pass the bill was far from being near which culminated in the abandonment of the bill. An insider said the fulani herdsmen activities are bombs waiting to explode while advocating that the best bet was for the herdsmen to buy land and graze their cattle within a confinement.   Continuing,he however revealed that the bill died with the expiration of last House adding that for it to resurrected,it has to start afresh and pass through legislative therapy in the present House.  The bill received kudos when it was presented and some states planned to emulate Enugu.

Indigenes are now expressing disappointment that the lawmakers did not only fail the state but also failed to set the pace in curtailing the menace of Fulani herdsmen whose threat to national peace and security has become alarming

MENACE CONTINUES UNABATED

Last Thursday,tragedy struck in Abbi,Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area as Fulani herdsmen killed a brother and sister at about 6:30 PM. The herdsmen burnt down 7 houses and several motorcycles while many people were hospitalized with machete wounds. About 19 people are still missing. It was gathered that the Fulani herdsmen numbering over 30 emerged from the bush, and began to attack the people in the community, killing their victims and maiming others with machetes before fleeing into the bush unharmed. The two relations who were killed were identified as Fidelis Okeja, 45, and his sister Mercy, 50.

Fidelis and Mercy were sitting outside their compound about 6.30 pm discussing when suddenly, about 30 masked Fulani herdsmen emerged from nowhere and pounced on them. They later went ahead and attacked other members of the community with machetes, burnt some houses before retreating into the bush.

A reliable source told Saturday Vanguard that police and local vigilantes were taken aback by the attack, and investigations are still going on, with no leads on them.