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Cattle rearers and dealers association of Bayelsa state has dissociated itself from the Okutukutu community’s farmers and herders row which led to the sending of a ‘save our soul” (SOS) to the government of the state by women of the community a couple week ago.
Speaking with Journalists in Yenagoa,the secretary of the association, Alhaji Ali Mai wada stated that as against the insinuations making the rounds that all cattle rearers are same,his association(the Bayelsa state cattle rearers and dealers association is different from the Miyetti Allah( normads) who were alleged to have invaded farmlands in parts of the state.
He noted that though the Fulanis were predominantly cattle breeders,the Fulanis and other tribesmen whose trade is in cattles stationed at the Bayelsa palm, buy theirs in the far north before migrating them by vehicles to the ranch at the Bayelsa palm allotted them by the immediate past administration of former Governor Seriake Dickson.
He regretted that even though his association has been working in consonance with the government’s guidelines on grazing areas,whenever issues having to do with destruction or invasion of fsrmlands by herders their association has borne the brunt due to their status as cattle dealers and northerners without adequate information at the disposal of victims.
Mai Wada hinted that following the series of complaints lodged by affected individuals, the cattle rearers and dealers association alongside its sister Miyetti Allah union have had course to meet with the government in a bid to forestalling recurrence of same or similar problem.
“Whenever cattles destroy or invade any farm in the state, originally people would think they’re ours.But no,even though the Fulanis are noted for predominantly into cattle rearing we want to debunk the rumours that the Okutukutu women protest of herders invasion was caused by cattles belonging to any member of our association”, he said.
“Ours don’t move and don’t go graze outside the government marked out arears of grazing. We do our business by government’s regulations,but we’ve also been engaging our Miyetti Allah herders on knowing the right areas of grazing”
“So we hope that very soon all these problems of destruction and invasion of crops and farmlands would be a thing of the past”, he added.
It would be recalled that the women of Okutukutu community of Epie clan in the Yenagoa council area of Bayelsa state had a fortnight ago called on the government’s attention to an alleged invasion of their farmlands by suspected herders.
