The Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, has described as wrong the insinuations that the Fulani ethnic group was responsible for herdsmen clashes that have led to many deaths across the country.
According to the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo, Okorocha made this known on Sunday when members of Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim led by its Supreme Head, the Prelate Solomon Alao, visited him at the Government House, Owerri.
The governor said that lumping up every Fulani man with the killer herdsmen was tantamount to calling every Fulani a criminal for the misdeeds of a few.
He added that it would also amount to denying the contributions of the Fulani towards nation building.
In the same vein, Okorocha said every criminal must be condemned without stigmatising every member of a whole ethnic group.
“The fact remains that no one in this country has the right to take another person’s life in whatever disguise. For herdsmen to kill anybody is not right and that must be condemned,” he said.
However, the governor denied that the state had established a cattle colony in the state.
Okorocha said there was a cattle market in the state and not a cattle colony, stating that the state government encouraged indigenes to go into cattle business because it was lucrative and that government would continue to support them with provision of ranches.