Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State has replied his Kaduna state counterpart, Nasir El-Rufai on the security situation in the North-West region.
Naija News had reported that El-Rufai had recently said on BBC Hausa service that North West governors are not on the same page concerning the security challenges affecting the region.
However, speaking on Radio France International on Thursday, Ganduje faulted the comment made by El-Rufai, saying that he does not understand the security efforts put in place by the governors of the area.
Ganduje said security agencies in the country had advised Kano, Kaduna, and Bauchi States to collaborate and check security challenges in the notorious Falgore forest in Tudun Wada and Doguwa LGAs of Kano state.
The governor asked the federal government to ban open grazing and establish ranches across the country.
He said: “The issue of lack of synergy does not arise in this context because security agencies have advised us to come and meet with Kano, Kaduna and Bauchi states to see how the activities of bandits in Falgore forest could be contained.
“I intimated both governors of Kaduna and Bauchi. Both had sent their delegations.
“There was the issue of the fund. Kano, Kaduna and Bauchi had all donated their funds and the exercise was eventually successful.
”The way I see it, the Governor did not understand security issues well because the security situation depends on the nature of a state. For instance, no matter how we strongly collaborate as governors, how should we check ethnic clashes in Kaduna? How should we check religious differences in Kaduna? You see, this is a problem that can only be checked by the Kaduna State government itself.
“Therefore, any security issue in a state depends on the efforts of the state government, the federal government, the security agencies and the people of the state.
”For instance, in Kano, we have a harmonious working relationship with security agencies. We have state-of-the-art security gadgets. In Dansoshiya forest, we are building houses to accommodate Fulani herders in a bid to stop them from grazing in the southern parts of the country.
“In Falgore forest, there is an ongoing project of a military training camp. In the project, there is a provision for areas where Fulani herders would be accommodated.
“We have enough places to accommodate Fulani herders in Dansoshiya and Falgore forests. To restrict them into those places in order to prevent them from grazing in the southern part of the country is the only panacea to the lingering crises.
“There are three categories of Fulani. There are Fulani, there are herders, and there are foreign Fulani herders who commit crimes.
“It is often forgotten that there are foreigners among those Fulani herders but nobody is talking about them. The moment a foreign Fulani herder infiltrated into Nigeria and committed a crime, he would be considered as Nigerian Fulani. Therefore, it is high time to ban them from entering Nigeria.
“Secondly, those herders travelling from the north to south should be banned from doing so. Those that are saying they should not be banned from trekking to the southern part of the country for grazing should use their children to do so.
‘’This is a national issue. A robust bill by National Assembly is the only answer to the issue of farmer/herder conflict.’’