By Ayo Oduwole
The Afenifere Renewal Group has demanded an apology from the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) over the association’s threat against the people of Ekiti State, the group said in a statement made available to Irohinoodua

In a statement signed by its publicity secretary, Kunle Famoriyo, ARG said MACBAN’s recent outburst against the Anti Grazing Law recently passed in Ekiti State is “considered an assault on Yoruba people and will be treated as a terror threat until an apology is tendered.”

MACBAN’s spokesman, Baba Othman Ngelzarma reportedly said the enforcement of Ekiti State’s Anti Grazing Law [can] “develop into unquenchable inferno…capable of creating uncontrollable scenarios whose ramification may go well beyond Ekiti State.”

“Such open threat against the people and government that accommodate your business interest is terrorism,” ARG said, while adding that MACBAN’s opposition to the law is deceitful.

MACBAN “had always exonerated its members from herdsmen’s vicious crimes, blaming it on ‘foreigners from other countries.’ Sanity therefore prescribes that MACBAN should be happy for the enactment of such law that will ensure genuine cattle breeders are not stigmatized by these criminals from other countries.”

“The new law, being first of its kind, may not be perfect and its enforcement may not be smooth initially. The responsibility therefore lies on major stakeholders to organise sensitisation workshops for its members so that the new law can achieve its objective of stemming crises arising from herdsmen-farmers relations.”

“MACBAN has so far shunned this democratic approach and preferred to use intimidation and warring tactics and languages. But the right of Governors, as the chief security officers of their respective states, to make laws consistent with the culture and rights of their people cannot be wished away by intimidation or threat.”

“We recall that in 2013, the Hisbah Police in Kano reportedly destroyed more than 20,000 crates of beer bottles. Despite the freedom of movement and trade guaranteed by the Constitution, what mattered then was that Kano does not want beer within its jurisdiction – even though it hypocritically shares from the VAT generated from sales of alcohol in other states.”

“Why should governors of northern states have the freewill to protect their people and religious disposition, while their southern counterparts are subjected to intimidation? Nigeria is not a slave camp of any ethnic nationality and MACBAN’s statement is therefore considered an assault on Yoruba people and will be treated as a terror threat until an apology is tendered.”