Herdsmen: Stakeholder calls for borders’ fortification

A political analyst, Chief Emmanuel Okoro, on Friday said one of the ways to check the menace of herdsmen was to fortify the nation’s borders.
Besides, Okoro told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, the government should begin to take the issue of data compilation seriously.
“What has happened is that the government has a need to strengthen its security forces. Intelligence gathering is very essential and data keeping, too.
“We should be able to monitor who comes to our country.
“It has taken how many years now for the National Identity Management Commission to issue identity cards to Nigerians. This is strange.
“In other countries, it doesn’t last three months before you are identified so that you will be carrying it along.
“Also, security forces and immigration people must work in tandem to know who is who so we can prevent it problems from occurring,’’ he said.
Okoro said that he believed the line of thought that the herdsmen suspected to be perpetrating crime in the country were foreign migrants.
He said that the herdsmen were from countries bordering Nigeria and some from terror-infested nations.
“They think that Nigeria is vulnerable and they can disguise themselves as herdsmen and invade our territories.’’
Okoro said that the call for herdsmen to leave the South-East and South-South regions was impossible as both groups were mutually beneficial to one another.
“The suggestion is an impossible idea because for many years, loyal, law abiding herdsmen have been living side-by-side with our people and our people have also tolerated them.
“The argument should be that those of them who are now bearing arms must be proscribed by law and that the village and people should now be very wary of the behaviour of herdsmen who are arms-bearing.
“We have lived over several centuries with loyal herdsmen who sell cattle to us and we allow them to graze,’’ he said.
It would be recalled that suspected herdsmen had been accused of killing, raping and robbing members of their host communities.
Several groups had given the herdsmen a time frame to vacate their areas or be forcefully evicted.
It would also be recalled that the Federal Government had condemned calls for herdsmen to leave some parts of the country. (NAN)