By Jonathan Ugbal
The Sarki Hausa of Ogoja, Alhaji Yakubu Adamu has said that some herdsmen residing in Ishibori community of Ogoja have been meeting with the community leaders to discuss issues that have affected both.
The herdsmen left the community last week Thursday after an alleged 72 hour quit notice was issued them and despite dodging questions concerning whether the quit notice was actually issued and whether the herdsmen vacated the community totally, Alhaji Yakubu told CrossRiverWatch that some are meeting with the community.
“Some of them that were born and spent their lives living in this area, the host community is trying to see how they will come to an agreement so that they will leave some of them, not all, they are still negotiating,” Alhaji Yakubu said.
He reiterated his stance when asked again if there was a quit notice and whether the herdsmen vacated the Ishibori community.
He said that: “Eh not all, the one that their parents are here, you know (that) some of them came from the north to settle here but those ones that they were born and brought up here, there are finding it difficult to leave.
“They are trying to negotiate before they leave them stay here. That is the meeting they held on Thursday.”
There is a tussle over who is actually the Sarki Hausawa Ogoja and despite being recognized by government, it seems the division in his subjects loyalty affected earlier negotiations for the herdsmen CrossRiverWatch gathered.
And, when asked, Alhaji Yakubu said that: “The issue of herdsmen, I have not discussed with them, so I don’t know what is actually happening. It is this my other (his rival) that discussed it with the clan head.”
One Ibu Monkom whom CrossRiverWatch gathered is the youth leader of the community had posted videos and images on Facebook claiming that the herdsmen had vacated the community after a dialogue.
However, emerging facts show that the villages had accused the herdsmen of allowing their herd trample on food crops and trespass farmlands despite several warnings which left the leaders concluding that they should leave the community with very little consultation carried out.
But, Mr. Monkom in his post had saluted the support of the Sarki Hausawa Ogoja and law enforcement agencies in the state.
Efforts to reach the Department of Conflict Resolution domiciled in the office of the Governor proved unsuccessful as calls to the lines of the Special Adviser, Omang Idiege and the Special Assistant, Augustine Ugar did not connect at the time of filing this report.
The Department of non indigenes affairs could not be reached either as the Special Adviser, Musa Maigoro did not take his calls while the Special Assistant Muslim Affairs in the department, Abdulkarim Adamu is on Hajj in Mecca presently.
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