March 23, (THEWILL) – The Irigwe Development Association (IDA), has complained of a strange breed of the Fulani stock that have invaded Irigwe land in Bassa local government area of Plateau State. Carrying out organised and systematic destruction of crops and farms.
Addressing a press conference on “massive destruction of farm crops by Fulani herdsmen in Rigwe land”, the National President of IDA, Robert Ashi Dodo, said the “Rigwe nation has been hugely and largely hit by the Fulani militia from 2021 to this year 2022. Culminating in the loss of several lives, farm crops, and property worth millions of naira.
The destruction carried out by the same Fulani before this period, and which dates back to the year 2000, in which losses and damages have not been quantified.”
The IDA President also reported that, “weeks ago, the Rigwe people woke up to the influx and infiltration of Fulani herdsmen with their cattle all over the land, claiming that a peace accord has been signed between them and the Rigwe people.”
The IDA also noted that, “in spite of the massive destruction of food crops and looting of materials by the militia men, the Rigwe people sustained and maintained absolute decorum by intimating the security agents of the atrocious acts and savage campaign on Rigwe land.”
According to the IDA, “while the Plateau State Government, Operation Safe Haven and some NGOs have been leaving no stone unturned in order to broker peace and restore normalcy to the Rigwe Chiefdom, the herders’ recent acts have amounted to a huge attempt to sabotage and frustrate such efforts.”
Calling on the Operation Safe Haven and the Plateau State Government to implement an earlier resolve to withdraw all herders from Rigwe land and to desist from grazing around, the Rigwe used the moment to call particularly on the Plateau State Government to “wake up to its constitutional responsibility of ensuring the safety of lives and property of the citizens.”
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