Nnamdi Kanu warns that ESN will make any governor or monarch who gives herdsmen land pay with their lives

INDIGENOUS People of Biafra (Ipob) leader Nnamdi Kanu has warned governors and traditional rulers across the southeast geo-political zone not to offer land to Fulani cattle herdsmen asking for plots under the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP).

Over recent years, Fulani cattle herdsmen have turned Nigeria into a war zone as their livestock destroy farms and when farmers complain, their attack their communities with AK47 assault rifles. Under pressure to rein in the herdsmen by compelling them to open ranches, the federal government came up with the NLTP.

Under the NLTP, states will offer land to herdsmen so they can open cattle colonies but this does not address the problem of them coming with their AK47 assault rifles. In addition, these herdsmen are feared for the violent acts they carry out, including rape, murder and kidnapping, which has made many communities wary of having them in their midst.

As a result the Delta, Cross River, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Oyo and Edo state governments have said they will not donate any land to be used as grazing reserves under the NLTP. Mr Kanu has thus warned other governors across the southeast that they should not give herdsmen land because doing so will ultimately be calling for the death of their people.

Speaking through Ipob spokesman Emma Powerful, Mr Kanu said Ipob's security outfit the  Eastern Security Network (ESN), would not spare any such governor or traditional ruler who granted land to the Fulanis. he added that anyone who collaborated with them will pay with their own lives.

Mr Powerful said: “Ipob has made it abundantly clear that we have no land for Fulani herdsmen settlements in Biafraland, and the north have more space than the south, especially the southeast.  We must warn that any traditional ruler or president-general of every any community in Biafraland who ventures to cede any space of land to the Fulani herdsmen for the sake of monetary gain, or issue, is ultimately calling for the death of their people.

“The person must equally pay with his own life for such ceding of land to the Fulani herdsmen, he must die. Ipob and ESN are prepared to deal with them.

"Even the governor who tried will not go scot-free. We don’t have land for Fulani terrorists in Nigeria they are free to stay in the north where they were allowed in 1804.”

In February, the federal government had mapped out 30 grazing reserves across the country for the planned implementation of the NLTP. However, the plan is based on state governments making land available for the programme.