Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) has warned governors and traditional rulers from South East not to give any part of Biafraland to Fulani herdsmen for the purposes of cattle colony.
Speaking yesterday in a telephone chat, MASSOB Director of Information, Sunny Okereafor, said the warning had become imperative because of information at the organisation’s disposal that some state governors and traditional rulers from the South East were negotiating with the Northern oligarchy to give out some portions of land in Biafra to Fulani herdsmen to serve as cattle colonies.
“Anybody doing this dangerous negotiation should be aware of the consequences of giving out Biafraland to Fulani herdsmen, which we see as abomination, and which not only them will pay for, but, also, their children’s children,” Okereafor warned.
The MASSOB director of information said it is a known fact the North has large expanse of land, far more than the South East, adding that it would be callousness for anybody to contemplate to cede any portion of the little land, that is not even enough for the Igbo to do their farming, to Fulani herdsmen.
“If the federal government wants to create cattle colony, let it be in the North that has large expanse of land and when we need their cattle, we will go over to buy them; but to cede any part of our land to Fulani herdsmen, we say no!”
Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishop of Awka Diocese, His Lordship, Most Rev. Paulinus Ezeokafor, has described the proposed setting up of grazing reserves and colonies for herdsmen as a time bomb waiting to explode. He emphasised that ranching remained the only solution to the Fulani herdsmen and farmers clash.
Bishop Ezeokafor, who stated this yesterday in Awka during the 2018 Armed Forces Remembrance Day Mass at St. Patrick’s Catholic Cathedral, said killings in Benue State needed Operation Python Dance and Crocodile Smile put together, adding that deploying the officers and men of the Nigeria Police to the troubled state may not yield the desired result.
He challenged the Nigeria security agents to apply similar measures used in unmasking those behind the killings of over 20 worshippers on New Year’s Eve in Omoku, Rivers State, in fishing out those behind the Benue massacre.
Bishop Ezeokafor wondered why the Federal Government should even deploy police to tackle such heinous act which he said left so many people dead. He said he expected them to apply the same measure used in tackling South East and South South, even as he accused them of treating Benue’s issue with kid gloves.
The Catholic Prelate called for urgent renegotiation of Nigeria, noting that going by the current situation of things in the country, Nigeria deserved to be renegotiated even as he said the states should be allowed to take charge of her Mineral Resources to enable them to develop at their own pace.
The MOASSOB director of information said in as much as MOSSOB believe in the non violence approach to actualize Biafra, it nevertheless said the group would employ every available civilized means to ensure no portion of Biafra land was given out to the Fulani herdsmen.
On the massacre in some parts of Benue and Taraba States by the herdsmen, Okereafor said it was pay back time for the people who he accused of conniving with the Hausa/Fulani to kill the Igbo in their numbers during the civil war, saying MASSOB has no sympathy for them.
“This is just pay back time for them and this is just the begging. All those who took part in the unjust killing of the Igbo from 1967 to 1970 will have no peace until they apologise for their misdeed”, Okereafor stated.
|Sun