The Benue State Livestock Guards have arrested a Fulani herdsman identified as Amandu Wakili who has admitted working for one Alhaji Aliyu Tershaku in company of several others suspected to be responsible for the recent attacks on some communities in the state.
Mallam Wakili made the revelation today in an interview with newsmen in Makurdi, the state capital.
He
claimed that Tershaku asked herdsmen including him to return to the
state and continue with grazing of cattle in defiance of the Benue State
Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law.
The
herder who was arrested in one of the communities bordering University
of Agriculture Makurdi yesterday openly grazing his cattle, said the
they were instructed to move to Benue but be watchful to resist cattle
rustling while also avoiding destruction of crop farms.
Wakili
who spoke in Hausa said two of his fellow herders who were with him ran
away with their cattle while he was arrested and taken to Makurdi by
operatives of the Livestock Guards.
He stated that they came to
the state from Awe Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, stressing
that more of their members were billed to relocate to Benue on the
instructions of their leaders.
State Commandant of Livestock
Guards, Mr. Linus Zaki while addressing newsmen on the matter, said they
received intelligence reports that herders were grazing openly around
University of Agriculture Makurdi communities and swiftly sent his
patrol men who arrested Mallam Wakili for contravening the state’s
Ranching Law.
He said the herder was arrested with a cutlass with
which he used to resist arrest but was later overpowered by men of the
Livestock Guards and taken away to the state office of the agency.
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