Operation Slaughter All Cows: Abuja Met Us Here —Fulani Herdsmen Claim |PoliFocus

Three weeks ago (specifically on 26th September), the Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory said Abuja residents should slaughter any cow found grazing in the city.

Senator Dino Melaye (APC Kogi West), who is the chairman of the committee, instructed the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Alhaji Mohammed Bello, during his appearance before the committee to ensure that the directive was implemented with immediate effect.


“From now on, get knives and ask your men to slaughter cows found in the capital city or prosecute herdsmen seen with cows in the city centre with a fine of N50,000 per cow.

This order must be carried out,” Melaye, had directed the minister. Daily Trust asked some herdsmen resident in the city how the directive has affected their lives in a city they claim to have spent decades raising their families and tending to their cattle.

“Abuja met us here,” Abdullahi Muhammadu, who lives in Moko, Dutse, told our reporter. “We were here before Abuja was created. I was born here, grew up here, got married here and raised all these children here,” he stressed in anger.

Muhammadu pointed out that slaughtering a cow because it’s grazing in a grassy area of the city will be a colossal mistake on the part of the authorities, who should protect them. But for now, he has decided to graze in areas around Dutse, Bwari Area Council.

Daily Trust on Saturday visited Jahi District where many of the herdsmen have lived for over five decades plying their trade, now being threatened by development and the menace of rustling.

Malam Ali Shehu, 46, took this reporter to his aged father, who came to Abuja as a young unmarried man. He is now in his 80s and stay mostly in the house to attend to issues.

The old man said he came to Jahi District, when nobody ever dreamt there would be a place called Abuja and has since been living there.“In fact, I can’t even recall when I came to Abuja, it’s been very long.

All these men were born here,” he said. Reinforcing his father’s comments, Ali said they were born in Jahi, have lived all their lives doing their business there.“We are ready to move if government wants to relocate us.

The truth is even the animals don’t like seeing people like this. We will not argue with the government,” Alhaji Shehu said.

According to him, they would have been grazing in the forest far from the city if not for the menace of cattle rustling, adding “the bushes are no longer safe for us, we would have preferred it.”

Malam Bashir Usman, another herdsman living in the same area, said since the ban, they have instructed the children not to go to areas like Mabushi, where they used to graze and to avoid crossing the roads.

Former chairman Miyyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (Abuja chapter), and currently National Security Adviser of the national body, Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, said the directive to slaughter animalgrazing in the city was not appropriate, pointing out that government needs to provide alternatives before taking the action.

“You see, Abuja came and met them here, they didn’t come to Abuja, and many of them had lived here for over 20 years before the city was created,” Alhaji Adamu said.

Although the herdsmen are willing to move out of the city centre to safer places, their major problem is to get the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to provide such alternative places and the time frame for them to move. Until that happens, asking them to leave the city where many of them have spent over 50 years will be a huge challenge.

DAILY POST 

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