Residents of Anambra and the Southeast have been urged to use the Eidel Fitri Celebration to foster brotherliness among themselves and de-emphasize issues that led to strife and violence among them.
TNC correspondent who went round town reports that Sallah celebration continued on Tuesday in parts of the state where Muslim faithful live, even as some of the Christian neighbours also joined in part of the festivities.
Speaking with our correspondent, the Southeast President of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, Alhaji Giddado Siddiki preached brotherliness among the people, noting that an atmosphere of crisis and insecurity is detrimental to the growth of the society.
Alhaji Siddiki, called on the state government led by Governor Chukwuma Soludo, to constitute a committee to bridge the communication gap that is driving most of the problems between farmers and herders.
This he noted, will help to address conflict between locals and herders.
“Herders in Anambra are facing severe security challenges.
“We, as a body doing business in Anambra and other parts of the south-east, pledge our unalloyed support to partner with the new governor to ensure peaceful coexistence between our members and residents of the state.
“The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association knows fully well that without a safe and secure environment, our business is bound to suffer deplorable losses.
“As chairman in the south-east zone, I am deeply worried about the vulnerability of our herders to the brazen rascality of criminal elements in some parts of Anambra state.
“This ugly act was once again laid bare in Obene, a rural community in Ogbaru local government area, where a gang of gunmen invaded herders’ settlement in the wee hours of the morning, and unsettled the peace of the micro-community.
“The Obene incident is just one of the many instances of attacks by different shades of criminals on herders at different locations in the state.
“MACBAN south-east zone is fully in support of governor Soludo’s mission of making Anambra a homeland where every decent person will find pleasure to live in, learn, work and enjoy life fully.
“We plead with the new Anambra administration to deploy more creative measures in stemming the latent tension between herders and the locals in some parts of the state that have been marked as flashpoints.
The Southeast MACBAN leader urged members of the MACBAN in Anambra and the Southeast, to ensure that in their activities, they do not undermine those of others.
“I would say that so far, about 85 percent of the cases where our cattle destroyed crops in Anambra communities, we have paid.
“However, this is not usually the case where the locals kill our cattle or our herders.
“But I have always advised our people not to disrupt the peace in the state because of such and so far, they have heeded my advice largely,” Sidiki boasted.
