Senator Lokpobiri - Herdsmen attack: Suspects are foreigners, can’t speak Fulani, any Nigerian language

The Federal Government, FG, on Tuesday said those involved in clashes with killings and destruction of property belonging to farmers were not Fulani herdsmen, but another faction of Boko Haram. The government conseequently described the Fulanis who engage in cattle rearing across the country as very peaceful people who move around with their families in search of water and grasses for their cattle and as such, cannot indulge in incessant killings.

The Minister of state for Agriculture, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, said the FG noted that the persons who have so far been arrested in connection with the Fulani Herdsmen’s killings, cannot speak any Fulani or any Nigerian language, noting that those tagged suspected Fulani were foreign terrorists from other countries.

Speaking during the Public Hearing on perennial clashes between herdsmen and farmers organized by the Senate Joint Committees on Agriculture and Rural Development and National Security and Intelligence, Lokpobiri said: “The problem is not Nigeria, but regional, more so, when the Nigerian Fulani man has always been known to be a peace loving person.
“Perennial conflict is a national and regional security.
“The problem faced by herdsmen is also faced in Cote d’Ivoire, so the problem is not limited to Nigeria.
“Available statistics to us in government show that contrary to media report that these violent herdsmen are the conventional Nigerian Fulanis, they are not, as none of those apprehended was able to speak any of the Nigerian languages.

‘’This gives strong credence to the possibility of the violent herdsmen to be another form of terrorists in the mode of Boko Haram,” the minister added.