Fulani herdsmen need help, not all are criminals – Gov Bagudu

Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagugu of Kebbi State, on Tuesday, has said that Fulani herdsmen needed help to change  their old lifestyle and pastoral practices which they have been practicing  for centuries.
Governor Bagudu, who lamented that all herdsmen recently are being labeled as criminals due to killings in some parts of the country, especially  Benue, Zamfara and Nasarawa states, however, said that “Not all Fulani’s herdsmen are criminals. These  killings have nothing to do with religion. It is just about lifestyle that need to be change”.
Governor Bagudu, who stated this during the disbursement of N93 million to various communities under the Kebbi State Community and Social Development Project(KB-CSDP)also  said, Iin the last two weeks, news headlines from national dailies portrayed herdsmen as criminals.
“These pastorals are those people that are moving their animals around. The societal pressure and environmental changes have made this pastoral practice difficult. I was in the Senate in 2014 and we set up adhoc committee and the mission of the committee was to visit six states which included Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Katsina and Zamfara states, where farmers and Fulani’s clashes took place.
“Part of our findings was that in all these states, citizens of various groups who are acting like herdsmen perpetrate the crimes. Some of these herdsmen, I am not saying we don’t have criminals among them, but we have many of them who are just doing their pastorals and the criminal activities are affecting their lives.
” Whenever I visited Danko-Wasagu Local Government Area, the issue people raise is about security. People cannot go to their homes and farms. The case is different now due to the support we received from the Mr. President. We have achieved a lot of good results. Now our neighbouring state, Zamfara, is being affected now.