FULANI LEADERS READY TO WORK FOR PEACE (PAGE 14, JAN 20, 2010)

THE leadership of Fulanis in the country have expressed their willingness to support the government in its efforts at bringing sanity into the activities of Fulani herdsmen in the country.
As part of the measures being rolled out by the National Union of Fulanis to check the nefarious activities by some of its members, the union has begun registering alien herdsmen in the country.
So far some members in Yeji in the Brong Ahafo Region and some parts of the Northern Region have been issued with identification cards in order to track their movements. The National Secretary of the union, Mr Burhanu Deen Babalwaiz, who was speaking during a meeting with the Northern Regional Minister, Stephen Nayina in Tamale, entreated the authorities to always liaise with his outfit on matters of erring herdsmen in the country.
The Public Relations Officer of the union, Alhaji Osman Yaro, expressed dissatisfaction that some chiefs and people in the host communities in the country were supporting the criminal activities of some herdsmen by shielding them for personal gains, instead of reporting them to the law enforcement agencies.
He, therefore, appealed to the government to prevail upon the leadership of such communities to always volunteer information on the activities of the erring herdsmen to the police for the law to take its course.
The minister for his part, noted that despite the fact that the government recognised the ECOWAS Protocol that allowed citizens of member states to move about freely , “our guests should not take undue advantage of the treaty to perpetuate heinous crimes in the country”.
“There has been a series of armed robbery attacks by some Fulanis in some corridors of the region that is quite alarming and those grazing their cattle indulge in raping our women in the wilderness while destroying farm produce,” the minister alleged.
He noted that even though there were law abiding members of the union, the few miscreants among them were dragging the union’s name in the mud and urged them to educate such people to live above reproach.
Other members present at the meeting were the Fulani chief of Tamale, Alhaji Garibu Prempeh, his counterpart from Yeji who is also the national chairman of the union, Ali Issah Bukari.