By Stanley Nwanosike
Enugu – The Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of Police in-charge of Zone 9, Mr Hassan Karma, has said that continuous interaction and mutual trust will end the clashes between farmers and herdsmen.
Karma told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on Thursday that frequent interaction between both parties would lead them to easily detect mischief makers, who perpetrate heinous crimes as farmers or herders.
He said that in the pre-independence days, herders and farmers co-lived in harmony until the recent criminal infiltrators by people with evil intentions.
“I have written to all the governors in the zone (South East) to form farmers/herders committees at both the state and local levels as well as at the community level where the traditional ruler should co-ordinate these meetings.
“The committee and its meetings will provide avenues where the host communities would continuously interact with the herdsmen to build trust and identification.
“In these interactions, parties should be sincere and uphold their various agreements to eliminate conflicts.
“I believe that it will not be long most of these incidents, accusations and counter-accusations will become history,’’ he said.
Karma said that Anambra, where he was a commissioner, had adopted the approach and it had been working to the benefit of all for the past four years.
He, however, said that there was an order for the immediate arrest anybody with arms in the zone.
“So far, we have arrested two persons with sophisticated guns, who alleged they were herders.’’