By Bamidele David, Warri
Unknown Fulani bandits have threatened anarchy in Delta State over the ban on open grazing across the State.
The faceless Fulani bandits in an unsigned letter addressed to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa called for a rescind of the ban order on open grazing in the State threatening to make the State ungovernable if the ban is not withdrawn with three days.
Copies of the threat letter by the faceless Fulani bandits were pasted at strategic locations of Delta State as at Sunday evening.
The letter which was pasted at strategic locations of the State including the fence of the Living Faith Church aka Winners Chapel at Infant Jesus Road in Asaba, was titled “Fulani Jihadist Warning: An Open Message Of 2 Paragraphs To Delta State”.
A copy of the threat letter sighted by our correspondent gave Governor Okowa “a 72-hour ultimatum to withdraw his support for the ban on open grazing or risk the state capital of Asaba being attacked”
The unsigned letter particularly threatened that “Fulani Jihadist fighters will attack Asaba and Governor Okowa’s Agbor town if he failed to withdraw his support for the ban on open grazing in the state”.
It will be recallwd that the threat letter was coming weeks after governors of the 17 Southern States at their meeting in Asaba recently banned open grazing of cattle in the region.
The Governors ban on open grazing was rejected by President, Major-General Mohammadu Buhari led Federal Government and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN claiming that such a decision violates the rights of herdsmen and their cattle to free movement.
Buhari, while objecting to the position of the Southern Governors, ordered for the restoration of the grazing routes across the country in a media interview last Friday..
The threat letter by the faceless bandits read in part, “This is to inform Delta State that the Fulanis of Usman dan fodio leadership, shall do everything it can to uphold the legacy of our heritage of open grazing for we are nomadic people from origination and shall never negotiate the ownership of Nigeria and West Africa and Sub-Sahara.
“We hereby demand the governor of Delta State to immediately withdraw his early stand for the call to ban open grazing in 17 regions in not less than 72hours from the above date and also, withdraw his position as the leading voice for the governors, as no occurrence we don’t have the first-hand information, even before the hosting of the South-South. South-East and South-South governors meeting in Asaba.
“Failure to adhere to this demand for been the host of the 17 governors, Delta State, most likely the city of Asaba and Agbor, shall encounter severe consequences than that of Bornu, Kebbi, Kastina, Kaduna, Enugu, Benue, Oyo and many more that will not respect the Fulanis heritage, as we take responsibility for the detonate explosive uncovered in the state capital secretariat, which should serve as warning to the Delta State government for what is to come, should the governor fail to abide to our demand.
“We highly advice all Fulanis and Northermers, including the security personnel to leave Delta State as soon as possible for the wind of our action is now present in the land, for failure of the governor to adhere to our call, this shall leave us with no choice.”
However, Delta State Government and security agencies were yet to respond to the threat as of the time of filing this report.
Calls by our correspondent to the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Olisa Ifeajika rang repeatedly without response.
