Fani-Kayode reacts to call for relocation of herdsmen from southern Nigeria

Femi Fani-Kayode, former Aviation Minister, has commended the call for herdsmen to leave southern part of Nigeria.

The area comprising of the South-West, South-East and South-South region are often under attacks by suspected armed herdsmen who kill, maim, rape and destroy landed properties and farmlands.

The plan by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to create Rural Grazing Areas (RUGA) nationwide for the herders was met with stiff resistance by southerners who accused the government of embarking on a land grabbing mission for herdsmen from the Fulani extraction.

Calling on the herders to leave the protectorate is the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) backed by the Northern Elders Forum (NEF).

This is after the CNG threatened the security of southerners living in their domain with the presidency asking the residents to discountenance the threat.

Hailing the decision, Mr Fani-Kayode said the call when heeded to will return peace in the troubled areas.

The former minister asked the groups to also withdraw their kinsmen from the North Central also known as Middle Belt region.

“I welcome the call by the NEF and the NCG for the Fulani herdsmen to leave the south,” the former minister said in a tweet on Wednesday.

“This will help restore peace, unity and national cohesion. They should leave the Middle Belt as well, renounce violence, stop the killings, stop the terror and turn in their deadly weapons,” he added.