The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Ogun State chapter, has demanded the prosecution of four suspects arrested for the killing of two herdsmen in Abeokuta, the state capital on Sunday night.
It also demanded justice for a married woman, Maimuna Ibrahim, who was allegedly set ablaze on May 21 at Shotinbo town along Shagamu/Ogijo and later died in the hospital, in order to guarantee a continuous peace across the state.
The state Chairman of MACBAN, Alhaji Ibrahim Abubakar Dende, in an interview with Daily Trust, said the development was capable of causing a great disaffection in the state where the majority of them were born.
He demanded that the state government offer financial assistance to offset the medical bills of those hospitalised over the incident.
Our reporter gathered that the criminals trailed the herdsmen and attacked them for refusing to re-direct their cows from grazing at the Adehun axis of the Roundabout area of the Abeokuta metropolis.
It was learnt that one of the suspects had during the day had an open confrontation with the herders, where he allegedly ordered them to keep off grazing their cows in the area.
Dende said the Fulani community in Ogun State was saddened by the situation whereby they were always labelled as trouble makers each time there was a crisis in the state.
“Government should help us prevail on the people of the Community Development Associations (CDAs) across the state that we are not bad people; such is an act of character assassination,” he added.
A team from the state government, led by the Special Assistant to Governor Dapo Abiodun on Security Matters, Biyi Odubote, and his counterpart on Inter-Ethnic Affairs, Hadi Sanni, had met with the leadership of the Fulani community to commiserate with them on the incident.
When contacted, the police spokesman in Ogun, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, told Daily Trust that he learned that there was a clash between some community members and Fulani herdsmen along the Adehun axis in Abeokuta.
“I have called the DPO of Lafenwa and he told me he sent a team of policemen with their patrol vehicles along Crescent University, I cannot say if someone has lost his life but am still investigating the issue,” he said.
Oyeyemi promised to find out about the case of the woman and get back but had yet to do so as of the time of this report, according to Daily Trust.