Religious leaders in River State have raised the alarm over what it called threats by the Fulani herdsmen to invade communities in the state.
Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Rivers State Chapter, Rev. Isaac Anyanasikike alleged in Port Harcourt that the herdsmen were already intimidating land owners in some rural communities of the state and acquiring land for grazing.
The clergy men from different platforms, Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Directorate of Religious Freedom and Church Collaboration of Christian Lawyers Fellowship of Nigeria alleged that the herdsmen had invaded several communities in the state.
Urging farmer to be vigilante of their neighbourhood, Anyanasikike stressed that tension was already rising in communities in the state following the presence of the herdsmen.
He said, “It has come to our knowledge that Fulani herdsmen or cattle rearers have constituted themselves into an embarrassing nuisance in rural communities in the various local government areas of the state where they graze their cattle with impunity on lands and or farms belonging to the natives and accompanied by their propensity for violence and other horrible forms of criminality whenever they are challenged by the landowners.
“That the Fulani herdsmen are still roaming the forests and farmlands in Rivers State with dangerous weapons and other instruments of violence without the security and law enforcement agents doing anything to check this pervasive use of unauthorised or unlicensed arms thereby leaving the lives of the majority of our rural community dwellers at avoidable risk in unacceptable.”
