A Port Harcourt-based clergyman, Pastor Simeon Afolabi, on Thursday warned against the allocation of lands as grazing reserves to Fulani herdsmen.
Speaking in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, the founder of First Love Assembly said grazing reserves would only create more clashes between Fulani herdsmen and their host communities.
According to Afolabi, “Fulani herdsmen will create time bomb in the country, if you give them grazing reserve. It will create problem of settlers. You cannot rob one people to pay the other. There are models everywhere in the world; you don’t see herds of cows on the streets of London as you see in Nigeria.
“Let government apply what we see abroad. What I am saying is it is wrong to take a people’s land in order to pacify another. I think a committee should be set to study how it’s done in other countries and apply it in ours”.
On the issue of agitations by various group across the country, the clergyman urged the Federal Government to revisit the recommendations of the National Conference in 2015.
He noted that the recommendation of the conference had the capacity to resolve the current challenges of agitations.
“Agitation is everywhere in the country and it is an indication that something is wrong with our system. None of the issues should be treated in isolation. The Federal Government should go back to the outcome of the National Conference in 2015, to begin to solve the nation’s problems,” he said.
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