Reps To Probe Into Fulani, TIV Crisis In North Central

Source: SAINT MUGAGA, THEWILL. - thewillnigeria.com

ABUJA, June 30, (THEWILL) – The House of Representatives is to investigate the remote and immediate causes of the recent clash between Fulani herdsmen and Tiv farmers in some communities of Benue and Nasarawa States.

Also, the Federal Government has been urged to create designated areas of grazing for Fulani herdsmen as a way of restricting them from trespassing into farmlands which was usually the cause of similar clashes in the country.

The House which in its resolution on a motion by Hon Emmanuel Jime representing Guma/Makurdi Federal Constituency of Benue on the matter approved the constitution of an ad-hoc committee to the investigate the clash has also urged the Federal, Benue and Nasarawa State governments to intervene in the crisis, as well as provide security in the affected areas.

In a related development, the House in its resolution on a motion by Hon. Godwin Ndudi Elumelu on the persistent boundary dispute between communities in Delta and Edo States yesterday urged the Federal Government to check the unlawful attacks by mobilising men of the security agencies to the affected communities.

The National Boundary Commission has also been directed to release the final resolution of the matter immediately to forestall the possible result of a full scale communal war in the area.

While leading the debate on the motion, Hon. Jime lamented that over 50 persons have been killed, while schools within the Daudu and Igyungu-adze communities of Guma Local Government Area of Benue State were forced to close down due to the crisis.

He said two men of the Nigerian Army were also ambushed and killed when on assignment to quell the crisis, adding that it was unfortunate that Governors as chief executives of states as well as chief security officers lack the powers to deploy security men even during an emergency.

Also supporting the motion, Hon.Yakubu Dogara lamented that there had been replications of the Fulani herdsmen clashes with host communities across the country, and that in most cases, expatriate mercenaries were being used to kill members of the communities. He said efforts should be made at restricting the herdsmen to designated areas.

Other decisions of the House in its resolution were that the security agencies should scale up intelligence gathering, while recommendations of the 2007 committee headed by the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III on similar developments are revisited, as well as urging the National Emergency Management Agency to provide relief materials for affected victims.

Elumelu in his submissions on the Edo and Delta Communities’ conflict said it was regrettable that nine years after efforts were made at resolving the crisis; the National Boundary Commission was yet to come out with a clear demarcation of the area in dispute, noting that several lives have been lost.

As an immediate response effort, the House has directed the governments of Delta and Edo State to as a matter of urgency; explore all possible means of resolving the years-long dispute.