Enugu Traditional rulers collect grazing fee from Herdsmen

'Enugu traditional rulers collect grazing money from

herdsmen'

The Transition Committee Chairman of Uzo-Uwani Local

Government Area of Enugu State ,Chief Cornel Onwubuya,

on Monday told the Judicial Panel of Inquiry on Nimbo

Killings that some traditional rulers collected money from

the herdsmen to permit them graze their cattle in some

communities within the Uzo-Uwani council area, of Enugu

state.

He said that because the herdsmen part with their money

before being given pass to graze their cattle, they felt quite

emboldened to do whatever pleased them including feeding

their cattle with farm crops and destruction of farms.

"Based on my interactions with them, they don't see

anything wrong in what they are doing in people's

farmlands," he said. "The problem is also that you see a

very small boy controlling over 100 cows. How can a small

boy control such number of cattle without them causing

destruction on farms?" he added.

Answering question from the commission on whether

money were collected from herdsmen by the native rulers or

other individuals before permitting them to pasture their

cows, Onwubuya said: "We 've had cases where some

traditional rulers were said to have collected money from

the herdsmen; and not only the traditional rulers, we have

had instances where sometimes people collect money from

the herdsmen and give them pass to graze in their

communities even when such people are not authorized to

issue pass to the herdsmen."

Onwubuya, who testified before the commission on the April

25, 2016 attack by suspected herdsmen on the Nimbo

community which claimed many lives with properties worth

millions of naira destroyed, also told the commission that

often the herdsmen would realize that they had paid to the

wrong people because the people that issued pass to them

were not authorized to do so.

He recalled that he had earlier given information to the

security men about the impending attack three days before

the killings, stressing that he informed them that about 500

assailants were camped at a place called Ameke and that

they would attack Nimbo. "I made information available to

the Governor, Chief Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, the then

Commissioner of Police, Nwodibo Ekechukwu, and the Area

Commander for Nsukka and the DPO. Every bit of

information I got, I released it on good time. I gave them

information three days before the attack, and how they

treated the information is left to the security men."

He further explained: "We knew they were coming and we

knew where they were coming from and we knew where

they were camped and we knew they would attack us."

He said that from the information "we gave to the police, I

believe they can even sort out this matter without catching

those they arrested. There are other alternatives to get at

those who masterminded the attack. I believe that all of

them knew what was happening because before the attack

everybody including the herdsmen and their cows left the

area.

Asked his opinion on how solve the problem, Onwubuya told

the panel that as an official of the government, he would be

neutral in the matter even while making sure that both the

herdsmen and their hosts co-existed peacefully. "All

complaints come to me; complaints from the herdsmen. All

I'm doing is to ensure a peaceful co-existence between the

two parties."