Kwara: Ekiti LG Youth Kick Against Night Grazing, Meet Fulani Reps

EKITI KWARA YOUTH HELD MEETING WITH FULANI REPRESENTATIVES

As part of the efforts in creating awareness and in response to the mounting insecurity challenges facing the people living in Ekiti LGA, the Ekiti Kwara Youth Development Platform wishes to inform the generality of Ekiti Kwara citizens home and in the diapora that a meeting which lasted for 4 hours was held with the Fulani repreentives from five zones today, Tuesday, 26th January, 2021, at Osi Town Hall, Ekiti LGA.

The essence of the meeting was to have prior discussions with the Fulanis on critical issues of concerns by Ekiti Kwara people such as: lingering insecurity issues, herders-farmers clash which usually leads to destruction of valuable farmland properties and conflicts, as well as fashion out short-term and long-term strategies whose implementation will result in achieving sustainable security in the LGA.

From the discussions, it was deduced that the require efforts on the part of the community, Fulanis and security to tackle the crisis and security challenges is not enough talkless of yielding the desired results.

It is on this premise that the following stand and recommendations were made by the Ekiti Kwara Youth Development Platform for ensuring a sustainable panacea to the constant herders-farmers conflict and the security challenges.

1.Admonish the Fulani to continue to be law-abiding people and night grazing must stopped in the LGA.

2.Also, the mandate them to monitor their zones as they may be responsible for any criminal act that transpires in their respective zones.

3.Traditional leaders in the LGA are urged to take proactive steps by coming up with an operational policy on grazing activities, and conflict-resolution mechanisms to address issues involving farmers and herders to muster the will of retaliatory attack that can leave the entire LGA devastated. If this is done, the resulting security and economic gains would greatly enhance the stability and peace in the LGA.

4.Similarly, the traditional rulers should work on the internal security

5.The local government as well as other relevant actors need to take remedial actions with a greater sense of urgency.

6.There is a need for the promulgation of laws regulating grazing activities in the LGA. This can be done by the time we elected officials coordinating and directing the LGA.

7.In the same spirit, the security agents such as police, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, vigilantes, local hunters should worok collaboratively and focus on preventive measures, including community-symbiotic mechanisms to upgrade intelligence gathering, early warning, and rapid response. This would help them to monitor, identify, discuss and manage potential threats in the LGA.

8.Every community should identify a farm area where large numbers of people can farm and employ security guards collectively that will be on the ground to man the place. Besides, there other silent measures that will be done. This would make it impossible for any reasonable human being to graze on the farm.

9. Henceforth, farmers should endeavour to identify anyone found on their farmland and report issues of destruction as it existed.

Conclusively, we urge the entire Ekiti Kwara people to be more vigilant and make report to appropriate quarters whenever suspicious persons are seen around. Also, it is hopeful that if the above stand and recommendations are put into action, the crisis and security challenges will be reduced to a barest minimum and farmers would have the opportunity to farm without hindrance.

Yusuf Abubakar Abiola
Coordinator, Ekiti Kwara Youth Development Platform

Alex Abolarin
Secretary

Abiodun Segun
Publicity Secretary