The Police in Kaduna State, on Monday, said they have arrested three suspects that allegedly killed two Fulani herdsmen on Saturday.
The Commissioner of Police, Agyole Abeh, told journalists in Kaduna that the two Fulani herdsmen were grazing their livestock when they were killed on March 11 at Unguwan Luka in Jema’a Local Government Area.
Abeh said the three suspects were arrested after a tip-off by Good Samaritans.
The police commissioner claimed that the suspects had made confessional statements and would soon be charged to court.
He declared that peace was gradually returning to southern Kaduna, and urged the general public to go about their normal businesses.
Abeh assured of the command’s readiness and commitment in providing a secure environment to all citizens and solicited for more support from the public to enable police personnel discharge their duties more effectively.
“I want to assure the people of the state of my resolve to flush out all forms of crime and criminality in the area,” he said.
The clash between Fulani herdsmen and farmers have escalated in the last one year.
Nigeria’s implementation of the land use act of 1978 allowed the state or federal government the right to assign and lease land and also gave indigenes the right to apply and be given a certificate of occupancy to claim ownership of their ancestral lands.
This placed the pastoral Fulani in a difficult position because most did not apply for lands of occupancy of their grazing routes and recurring transhumane movement will lead to encroachment of the properties of others.
The Nigeria government designed some areas as grazing routes but this has not reduced clashes.
From 1996 to 2006 about 121 people lost their lives in Bauchi and Gombe states as a result of conflicts between pastoralists and farmers.
