Oyo State government has charged the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association to work towards having a register of true members of the body in the State to avert future clash between herders and farmers.
The State Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Hon. Muyiwa Ojekunle stated this while playing host to the executive members of the association at his office in Ibadan on Friday.
Ojekunle said it would be hard for any criminal element among the herders to perpetrate crime if his identity is well known to the association as well as the government.
“All these hullabaloo will be a thing of the past if your members have registration method and their identity well known to you and the government. Nobody will commit any crime when he knows people can identify him or her.
“The present administration understands and is very ready to work for unity among all ethnics and tribes in the country to move our State together. More so as the governor of Oyo State is ready to use agriculture to turn over the economic potentials of our people for better.
“Go back and preach peace and harmony to your people. Our land is open to all to thrive in business and we already have foreign and local investors who have started working on cultivation of large expanse of lands across the State and with same interest in animal husbandry as well.
“They are ready to work with you the same way we are also ready to work with all law abiding citizen of Nigeria to grow the economy of our State and the people therein. But first, you must find a way to identify and register your true members,” he advised.
The Oyo State Vice Chairman of Miyetti Allah, Alhaji Ibrahim Diji appealed for support from the state government for the body to mediate and foster peace in cases of clashes between farmers and herders in the State.
He stated that one of the ways to permanently end farmers-herders clash was for the government to create grazing routes for the herdsmen so that when they are out with their cattle for grazing there would be no straying into people’s farms, noting that if Oyo state government worked with the association, better understanding would be established while peaceful coexistence would also be achieved.
