Agwai to el-Rufai: Compensate all parties, not only herdsmen

Martin Luther Agwai, a retired military general, says if there is going be compensation given to anyone as a result of the southern Kaduna crisis, all aggrieved parties should included.

Reports said that the Kaduna government was a negotiating a compensation for Fulani herdsmen who lost their cattle to the attacks.

But speaking in an interview with DAILY TRUST, Agwai said that his committee recommended that the state government dialogue and compensate all the aggrieved parties.

Agwai, who headed a committee set up by the Kaduna government to investigate the persistent killings, said that if the Kaduna government “has paid one group and quoted our report, I feel that is partial.”

“I have heard such rumour; but my report is open. What the committee recommended was for the government to dialogue and compensate all the aggrieved parties, not an aggrieved party. If the Kaduna state government cannot do it alone, it should appeal to the federal government and international organisations for assistance,” he said.

“So, if there is going to be dialogue it should include everybody. If there is going to be compensation it should also include everybody.

“Our report even went further to say that in the interim, government can talk about grazing reserves, but in the long run, ranching is the solution to the problem. We should bear in mind that because cattle are increasing, the owners of the cattle are also increasing.

“In the same vein, farmers are increasing and the quest for farmlands is increasing. But the land itself is constant, it does not increase. And if you want to have a proper mechanised and profitable farming, you need a land of over 100,000 hectares. Everybody is trying to use the land; hence we cannot continue to graze from place to place.”