Fulani herdsmen: Northern traders divert food trucks to Niger Republic

Northern food and cattle traders have stopped ferrying their consumables to the southern part of Nigeria.

The move followed what they described as the failure of the Muhammadu Buhari government to secure the lives of Fulani herdsmen, settlers, and other food traders from the North.

The price of certain food items like meat, onions, pepper, tomatoes, beans and yam have gone up in the South owing to the move which is backed by the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN).

The Northern Consensus Movement (NCM) and the Amalgamated Union of Foodstuff and Cattle Dealers of Nigeria also backed the strike which began on Thursday. The coalition had given the government an ultimatum after the expiration of which it declared the strike action.

Some northern youths also backed the move by blocking truck routes between their region and the South. On Friday, they stopped truckloads of food from entering Kwara and neighbouring states in the South-West.

The youths stopped several food trucks from the North to the South at a village in Jebba area of Niger State, a viral video showed.

In response to the illegal blockade, traders diverted the perishable food items to other countries.

“As I speak to you, my people are already shipping their goods, onions, tomatoes and what have you to Niger Republic, Cameroon, and other neighbouring countries through Illela border,” NCM president Awwal Abdullahi Aliu told The Tribune in confirmation of the development.

“Already, we have diversified. Our people have already found a way of not wasting their goods. They will not be wasted. They will be sold just like the way they were being moved to the South-West, South-East or South-South.

“So, my people will end up not losing anything. We did not arrange this one, it just came up. Automatically, it started happening. People just quickly saw it and the goods started moving in those directions.”

Miyetti Allah also confirmed the development.

They blamed the situation on the Shasha market crisis in Ibadan, Oyo State, and on the EndSARS protests which he said led to the killing of many Fulani herdsmen, Hausas and other northerners.

They also pointed to the unconstitutional activism of Sunday Igboho who wants to expel all “criminal” herdsmen and settlers from the South-West.

Aliu said the matter would be resolved once President Buhari can guarantee the safety of northern traders in every part of the country. He also said the coalition wants N4.7 billion in compensation for the losses the traders incurred during EndSARS protests and recent ethnic clashes.

“When I mentioned N475 billion, it was a slip of tongue,” he said.

“What we actually requested is N4.7 billion, not N475 billion. I was angry with the question one of the journalists asked. You know journalist can ask you provocative questions.

“The question got me provoked and when I was trying to say N4.7 billion, I made a mistake by saying N475 billion. What we wrote to all Federal Government agencies is N4.7 billion and we broke it down with the number of people that have been killed.

“By the Islamic injunction and Northern tradition, compensation for life is N35 million for one life.

“We calculated the money by the number of people that were killed and put it together. We lost over 100 open-body trucks and each truck head, without the body, cost N56 million. We lost about 75 (18-seater) buses, then a lot of cow forcefully seized and distributed during the EndSARs crisis, and bags of rice and beans. All these things are what we put together to arrive at a figure.

“We didn’t just call a figure, we calculated the number of people that died, property destroyed, those injured and arrived at a figure for compensation, not outright payment for the losses.

“It is the responsibility of the government to protect lives and properties. If anything goes wrong and they were unable to protect lives and properties, they should pay for that loss.

“We also say the government should fish out the perpetrators of the act, who are people that came out and do this killing? Government should arrest them, prosecute them, and let us see them being sentenced accordingly.”

Meanwhile, the Nigerian military said that it has cleared the blockade so that food could, once again, flow from North to South. But there are fears the crisis could linger and lead to a southern food scarcity.