Herdsmen killings: Reps begin probe, suggest loans for ranching

The House of Representatives on Tuesday started investigations into the incessant killings by herdsmen in the country.

It said the probe would take a wider approach to look at the “root causes” of the attacks.

Iriase, while speaking at the National Assembly in Abuja, noted that efforts made by the Federal Government and its agencies so far to address the killings had some shortcomings.

He said, “These efforts, while still ongoing, are being impacted by strait-laced narratives, political innuendo and ethnoreligious distrust.

“In fact, some of these strait-laced narratives have tended to ascribe all the killings to a single cause, thus jettisoning the need to rigorously interrogate the happenings with an open, unbiased and non-partisan mind.”

He said the House would visit the locations of the attacks and speak with victims, “survivors and other stakeholders.”

Iriase spoke just as lawmakers in plenary passed a resolution, calling on the Federal Government to consider providing soft loans for herdsmen “to buy land to ranch their cattle.”

They also called on the government to educate herdsmen on the benefits of ranching.

The House passed the resolution after a member from Nasarawa State, Mr. Mohammed Ogoshi-Onawo, moved a motion on the “Need to Educate and Encourage Herdsmen on the Benefits of Ranching, Instead of the Proposed Cattle Colonies in Every State of the Federation.”

While the majority of contributors to the debate supported ranching as the “realistic and modern” solution to the clashes and killings, some members of the Fulani stock opposed it.