Yahaya Abdullahi, Leader of the Senate, told journalists in his office on Monday that Prof. Ajayi Boroffice, Deputy Senate Leader, who represents Ondo North in the Senate, would come up with a motion.
The Senate has said it will discuss the issue of Fulani menace ravaging the country on Tuesday.
Yahaya Abdullahi, Leader of the Senate, told journalists in his office on Monday that Prof. Ajayi Boroffice, Deputy Senate Leader, who represents Ondo North in the Senate, would come up with a motion on the issue and that it would be discussed on Tuesday or Wednesday.
According to Abdullahi, the Presidency should encourage political and traditional rulers to play a major role in resolving the problem.
He said, “This is a kind of crisis that is tending towards a governance trajectory where some political actors and ethnic entrepreneurs are coming into the process and spoiling the waters. These are existential issues that have set communities that have hitherto been living together peacefully, against each other, either for political advantage or political matters.
“These are issues that should be resolved at the local level either through dialogue or give and take. They are people that have lived together, they should come together and engage in a dialogue. The Federal Government is too distant to resolve every communal dispute everywhere. Inter-communal disputes should be resolved by the people in the area.
“They should be resolved by political leaders at the level of the National Assembly, at the level of the governors, local government councilors to sit down with their people so that a lot of these issues can be articulated and addressed by the local population.
“This is what the governors at their levels should do, not to always run to the presidency to solve one dispute here and there. How many arms does the Federal Government have? This is a federation and we are all politically responsible leaders. At the various levels where they are, they should sit down and talk to one another on these disputes.
“I can assure you that in no distant time these inter-communal conflagrations would be resolved. I think the way it may be resolved is in the interest of this country’s unity and integrity. There would be hopefully tomorrow (Tuesday) or Wednesday a general motion will be sponsored by the Deputy Senate Leader, Ajayi Boroffice; he will come with a motion on the issue on the floor of the Senate tomorrow.”
Attacks by suspected Fulani herdsmen in many parts across the country have recently led a number of communities to demand their exit from their domains.
An agitator for Oduduwa Republic, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, recently issued a seven-day ultimatum to Fulani herdsmen to leave the Ibarapa area of Oyo State, blaming them for the spate of killings and kidnappings there.
Earlier, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State had also given herdsmen seven days to vacate the state’s forest reserves, saying some people masquerading as herders had been using the forests to commit crimes.
Some Edo women and youths last week also asked Fulani herdsmen to leave their communities, saying they were to blame for the violence in their areas.
However, the Presidency, in its response to Akeredolu’s ultimatum, said the country’s constitution guarantees the rights of citizens to move and live in any part of the country.