Why are Fulani cattle rearers trespassing on Igbo land?

Posted by Felix Okoli on Wednesday November 11, 2015 at 10:12:32:

If the Igbo farmers and landowners had the same type of guns(e.g. AK-47s) the Fulani herdsmen have, I don't think the latter would even think about trespassing on Igbo lands because they'll know the consequences but as a result of Nigeria's strict gun laws and the abundance of high calibre guns and ammunition which the Herdsmen have access to from the North, they find it easy to do whatever they want and get away with it while the Federal government turns a blind eye.

When someone enters your land without your permission, he has committed what is know in law as a trespass but a growing number of Fulani cattle rearers are trespasing on traditional Igbo land and yet it appears that the Nigerian government is doing nothing to stop them. I think one of the things that is giving those Fulanis the courage is that fact that they are fully armed with many of them carrying high tech arms which even some policemen don't have access to. Where did they get those AK-47 guns? Probably through the same way Boko Haram got theirs through the porous borders of Northern Nigeria.

It is a growing problem which Igbo farmers and landowners have to deal with as cattle rearers from the North migrate to Southern Nigeria and leaving their traditional grazing region to invade and destroy Igbo farmlands, rape their women and kill their men. What does the Igbo farmer have to fight them with if not gunpowder guns and machetes?

There has been several complaints made by Igbo people who have been negatively affected by the southward migration of cattle rearers to the Police but the problem has not been totally solved as issues keep arising. What do people do when the police and the government can no longer protect them even when they are law abiding citizens? It may at times seem justified to also buy guns from the black market to protect themselves.

What is worrisome is that some of those Fulani herdsmen are not just ordinary humble cattle rearers but terrorists who invade villages, steal from people and cause harm to the community while pretending to be just ordinary cattle rearers.

If the Federal government keeps on turning a blind eye by not doing enough to protect Igbo people who are being attacked on their lands by dangerously armed cattle rearers, it may lead to a breakdown of law and order as the affected Igbo people start to buy and use arms themselves for protection.

It's only sensible for people to give up their rights to protect themselves if they have a government that can effectively protect them but when that if off the table, they may be forced to act as if there was no government.

Igbo people are not cowards and they always try to be law abiding but if their existence and means of livelihood is being threatened, they have the natural tendency to fight back just like they did during the Biafran war.