By Abiola Olawale
The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), an Islamic human rights organization, has on Friday said the organization is in possession of concrete evidences of the destruction of farmlands allegedly prepetrated by the herders in the country.
MURIC made the claim amid the heated crisis in Southwestern region of Nigeria between the Yorubas and the Fulanis which has continued to create animosity in the country among leaders.
The organization said it has evidences to prove the involvement of herders in the wanton destruction of farmlands in a statement signed by its Director, Ishaq Akintola.
MURIC also called on the Federal Government to compensate the farmers whose farmlands have been destroyed.
The statement reads, “MURIC is now in possession of indubitable evidence of the destruction of crops on farmlands by cows brought by herdsmen. We sent our feelers to all states where we have branches of MURIC and the reports are overwhelming convincing. We asked our members to supply information on the activities of herdsmen in their states, including Abuja. In fact we were stupefied by the outcome. This is frightening. Farmers in Kwara State are afraid of going to their farms due to the activities of herders. What MURIC will like to suggest is that FG should roll out a compensation programme, albeit instalmentally, to be paid to farmers of all categories.”
The Islamic group also tasked the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN) to embrace the responsibilities of condemning the bad acts of some Fulani herders rather than advocating and demanding ridiculous things from the government.
Following the demand by the Miyetti Allah that the Federal Government should buy large portions of land that could be set up for ranching, MURIC has termed the demand outrageous and stated that the association should rather focus on fishing the bad egg amidst them.
It would be recalled that MURIC is an Islamic human rights organization. The Islamic organization was founded in October, 1993 by the current director, Ishaq Akintola.
