Obaseki defends herdsmen, says not all are killers

Edo state Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has said that not all herdsmen were killers, urging residents of the state not to desert their farms. He said that few bad eggs among the nomads were responsible for the killings of innocent Nigerians.

“In every society, you have the good, the bad and the ugly. And there have always been Fulani herdsmen since we were kids. The variant is what we are seeing now,” the governor said at a symposium organised by the Correspondent Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, in Benin City.

Obaseki said his government had stepped up plans to tackle the frequent clashes between farmers and herdsmen.

Represented by his Special Adviser on Food Security and Agriculture, Mr. Joe Okojie, the governor disclosed that a seven-man committee, including divisional police officers (DPOs) and the Department of State Services (DSS) had been inaugurated across all of the state’s 18 council areas to address the menace.