Religious clerics in Rivers state have raised alarm that suspected Fulani herdsmen in the state are armed with weapons and are about to launch a deadly attack.
The clergymen who came from different platforms including the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Directorate of Religious Freedom and Church Collaboration of Christian Lawyers Fellowship of Nigeria.
The also claimed that herdsmen had invaded several communities in the state.
Rev. Isaac Anyanasikike who is the chairman of CAN said in a statement read on Wednesday, June 15 that the herdsmen were already acquiring lands for grazing in some communities and intimidating land owners.
He said: “It has come to our knowledge that Fulani herdsmen or cattle rearers have constituted themselves into an embarrassing nuisance in rural communities in the various local government areas of the state where they graze their cattle with impunity on lands and or farms belonging to the natives and accompanied by their propensity for violence and other horrible forms of criminality whenever they are challenged by the land owners.
“That the Fulani herdsmen are still roaming the forests and farmlands in Rivers State with dangerous weapons and other instruments of violence without the security and law enforcement agents doing anything to check this pervasive use of unauthorised or unlicensed arms thereby leaving the lives of the majority of our rural community dwellers at avoidable risk in unacceptable.”