Governor
Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, has revealed that his government has
paid money to Fulani Herdsmen to pacify them to stop killing in Southern
Kaduna.
Gov. El-Rufai
While fielding questions from some select Journalists in his office
in Kaduna, Governor Nasir el-Rufai, disclosed that his government has
traced some violent, aggrieved Fulani to their countries and paid them
to stop the killings of Southern Kaduna natives and the destruction of
their communities.
According to Vanguard, the APC influential chieftain, who revealed further that the renewed violence is carried out by bandits, said: “For
southern Kaduna, we didn’t understand what was going on and we decided
to set up a committee under Gen. Martin Luther Agwai (rtd) to find out
what was going on there. What was established was that the root of the
problem has a history starting from the 2011 post election violence.
“Fulani herdsmen from across Africa bring their cattle down
towards Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria. The moment the rains starts
around March, April, they start moving them up to go back to their
various communities and countries.
“Unfortunately, it was when they were moving up with their
cattle across Southern Kaduna that the elections of 2011 took place and
the crisis trapped some of them.
“Some of them were from Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Mali and
Senegal. Fulanis are in 14 African countries and they traverse this
country with the cattle.“So many of these people were killed, cattle
lost and they organised themselves and came back to revenge.
“So a lot of what was happening in Southern Kaduna was actually
from outside Nigeria. We got a hint that the late Governor Patrick
Yakowa got this information and he sent someone to go round some of
these Fulani communities, but of course after he died, the whole thing
stopped. That is what we inherited. But the Agwai committee established
that.
“We took certain steps. We got a group of people that were
going round trying to trace some of these people in Cameroon, Niger
republic and so on to tell them that there is a new governor who is
Fulani like them and has no problem paying compensations for lives lost
and he is begging them to stop killing.
“In most of the communities, once that appeal was made to them,
they said they have forgiven .There are one or two that asked for
monetary compensation. They said they have forgiven the death of human
beings, but want compensation for cattle. We said no problem, and we
paid some. As recently as two weeks ago, the team went to Niger republic
to attend one Fulani gathering that they hold every year with a message
from me."
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