‘Kill a cow, go to jail’ – Ebonyi Governor

Ebonyi state governor David Umahi says anyone in the state who kills a cow belonging to Fulani herdsmen will be jailed for one year and made to pay for the cow.

The governor while addressing an enlarged security meeting between all security chiefs, the 13 council chairmen and herdsmen in Abakaliki the Ebonyi state capital also ordered that any Fulani man seen grazing cows at night should be arrested immediately.

While stressing the importance of the meeting, Umahi said minutes from the meeting would be properly documented with same sent to the leadership of the Miyetti Allah.

“I am the chief security officer and I’m directing the security chiefs to do their work. If you see any Herdsmen moving around, he should be arrested. This security meeting is very important and I want it to be properly documented. The minutes of this meeting, I will send it to the President of Miyata-Allah to know our position.

“No cow should move around again at night. It is against the law of miyata-allah. No grazing at night. The law does not permit cow to move at night. And I have said there is no cattle grazing reserve in Ebonyi, no cattle colony. There is no colony. Those herdsmen that have being living together with our villagers should continue to live in peace and that’s our position. Some of them who have lived in Ebonyi for 38 years, you cannot ask him to go,” he said.

He also reiterated that the state will no longer accommodate any more herdsmen as there were already 120 fulani settlements in the state.

“I will like us to do this agreement so that I get the Herdsmen to sign it and all the community heads will also sign it. It will be a binding agreement between us and the Herdsmen living in Ebonyi state.

“I don’t want anybody to chase the fulani people away but we don’t want more Herdsmen in Ebonyi, they have over 120 settlement already in Ebonyi. Our land is very small and we are doing agriculture. No movement to farm land again,” he said.