The Leader of Tiv Professionals, Prof. Zacharys Gundu, has accused the Nasarawa State Governor, Engr. Sule Abdullahi of providing a safe haven, refuge, and taking the lands of his citizens and giving them to foreign “Fulani” terrorists.
Prof. Gundu, who disclosed this during a town hall meeting recently in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, indicated that Engr. Sule is following in the footsteps of his predecessor, Alhaji Tamko Al-Makura, who, in his time as Governor, described the killers as “international hunters.”
According to Prof. Gundu, it cannot be denied that the people attacking Nigerians are coming from outside the country, and it is people like Governor Sule who are enabling them.
“No other person in their right senses will ever deny that the Fulani who are pushing and attacking us are coming from outside the country. And it is people like Sule, the Governor of Nasarawa State, who is giving them a haven, who is giving them refuge, who is getting the lands of his citizens and giving it to these people,” he stated.
“We know that even during (Tanko) Al-Makura’s time, Fulani were coming from there and attacking Benue State, and Al-Makura will call them international hunters in spite of the fact that Nasarawa State does not have any international hunting ground. He will call them (international hunters) because he wants to mask them.
“And even today, the governor of Nasarawa State, Sule, is also masking the problem,” Prof. Gundu went on.
He noted that ancestral lands belonging particularly to the Tiv people in Awe, in Doma, in Keana, in Lafia, and in Obi have been taken over and given to the Fulani people.
Prof. Gundu also argued that the umbrella body of cattle breeders in Nigeria, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breaders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) are not breeding any cattle in the country.
“All the cattle; majority of the cattle that we see up and down in this country come from Potiskum Market in Yobe (State). They buy them and they take them across the country. Once they finish selling, they go back.
“So, no person is breeding any cattle in this country. If they were breeding, they would have known that it is better, it is healthier to breed cattle on a ranch,” Prof. Gundu noted.
He explained that killings by the armed herdsmen are not a Benue problem, saying the herdsmen are in the South-South, grazing by force. “So we who are Nigerians and who want to stand our ground as citizens of this country must appreciate the fact that we are not dealing with a local problem; we are dealing with a bigger problem,” he warned.
