It’s unfair to say I don’t caution herdsmen because I look like them – President Buhari

During a town hall meeting with Plateau elders yesterday, President Buhari stated that it is unfair for people to accuse him of not doing anything to caution the Fulani herdsmen because he looks like them.

Recently, over a hundred people of Plateau state were killed with about 50 houses burnt when Fulani herdsmen attacked about 11 villages. Among those killed are women and little children who were slaughter and butchered mercilessly.

Speaking at the town hall meeting, President Buhari said ‘‘What happened here in Jos is very bad. The question of leadership, from your household to whatever you are, is justice. The bottom line is justice. That is why wherever I go, I will always appeal to the leadership of the communities, the law enforcement agencies to always have control of their constituencies. Whatever is being given to the media, we have to be very responsible about it. Take for instance the situation in Benue.

The Benue subsistence farmer knows that the Nigerian cattle herder that he knows doesn’t carry nothing more than a stick, occasionally sometimes something to cut grass to feed his cattle. But the present herder, I am told, carries AK47 and people are even blaming me for not talking to them because maybe (they say) I look like one of them. There is some injustice in these aspersions.”