The senator representing Plateau North, Gyang Pwajok has called on the federal Government to ban local and trans-border hunting to inhibit arms movement. Pwajok was reacting to the claims by some suspected insurgents who said that they were local and international hunters.

He disagreed with the claims and stated that it was “all manners of terms to conceal the real identity of the attackers”, and also expressed surprise that people claiming to be hunters were caught in the urban areas. He said “Really, claiming to be international hunters explains nothing at all. We must ban such things and insist on the true identities of those caught unless they are hunting something else and not animals.”

The senator representing Plateau North, Gyang Pwajok has called on the federal Government to ban local and trans-border hunting to inhibit arms movement. Pwajok was reacting to the claims by some suspected insurgents who said that they were local and international hunters.

He disagreed with the claims and stated that it was “all manners of terms to conceal the real identity of the attackers”, and also expressed surprise that people claiming to be hunters were caught in the urban areas. He said “Really, claiming to be international hunters explains nothing at all. We must ban such things and insist on the true identities of those caught unless they are hunting something else and not animals.”

Senator Pwajok said “When we blame the Fulanis, we communalise the crime and reduce investigating opportunities. We must dig more and find out who is carrying these attacks. We must dig deeper so as to know their mission, motive, their sponsors and why their targets are always the vulnerable groups like the children, women and the aged.”

He added that there should be proper scrutiny of statements attributed to leaders of some ethnic groups on the persistent violence. “Sometimes, some of the statements have fallen short of why the attacks are persistent. The statements even make clear demands on the system as preconditions for peace. We must look into these all, he said.”

Pwajok who is popularly known as GNS regretted the situation where cattle rearing could no longer be carried out as peaceful as it used to be in the past. He said “We grew to see a mutually beneficial relationship between our parents and herdsmen. The farmer found the cow dung a rich source of manure, while the herdsmen found the green grass and the sticks of harvested crops a rich source of grazing for the cows. So, cattle rearing is one enterprise that should be very peaceful, acceptable and easily welcomed. We should ask the pertinent question as to why that has changed and led to such deadly hostility between the farmer and the herdsman.”

He added that the he appreciates the grazing rights of herdsmen but stressed that such should not infringe on human rights to survival. “The grazing rights of meat and milk suppliers should not also infringe on the rights of operators of other sub-sectors of the economy like farmers and ordinary traders in the market, he said.”

The senator stated that he supports the idea of reviving local and international cattle routes but not at the expense of the natives and Nigerian society as they have to be collaborators to achieve the goal. He called on stakeholders to work together towards maintaining and sustaining peace in the rural settlements as the rural area was the source of food consumed in the urban areas.

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Middle belt killings: Plateau north senator wants hunting banned