In South-East, Igbo merchants now ‘big-time herders’

Many Igbo merchants and their associates in the South-East and South-South have ventured into cattle trading and rearing, a development believed to have aggravated the recent misunderstanding between herders, farmers and other stakeholders across Nigeria. Findings by Daily Trust show that herding is no longer exclusively practiced by the nomadic Fulani, but a source of […]

Many Igbo merchants and their associates in the South-East and South-South have ventured into cattle trading and rearing, a development believed to have aggravated the recent misunderstanding between herders, farmers and other stakeholders across Nigeria. Findings by Daily Trust show that herding is no longer exclusively practiced by the nomadic Fulani, but a source of livelihood for many, including the Igbo and many ethnic groups in the North-Central part of the country.
However, while some people take to herding to diversify their sources of income, findings show that some are hiding under the age-old tradition to perpetrate crime.
Cattle traders, middlemen and herders in Adamawa and Taraba states in the North-eastern part of Nigeria, told Daily Trust that the upsurge of violence, especially in the South-east is mostly perpetrated by people of Igbo extraction, who later shift the blame on Fulani herders in order to spark violence.
Baba Yaya, a cattle dealer in Gembu, in Sardauna Local Government Area of Taraba State, said Igbo merchants now patronize markets, and buy hundreds of cows every week. “It seems most Nigerians are not aware that the Igbo are now big-time herders, and would unleash terror on their kinsmen using the name of the Fulani. Our Fulani kinsmen are not invaders, they don’t just have the capacity of penetrating localities in the South-East to wreak havoc and get away with it,” he said.
Barr Mohammed Bello, a civil activist and politician, who also works closely with the Miyetti Allah, told our correspondents in an interview, that after thorough investigations, he found out that the Igbo, in cahoots with some politicians, carry out violent acts and make it look like the work of herders, in order to destabilize the incumbent administration.
Bello said the scheme is part of the struggle for actualizing the State of Biafra. “The agitators are the very people using cows as an alibi to cause trouble,” he said.
“I visited five cattle markets in Taraba, Adamawa and Gombe states, and there is somebody called Adejo, and another one called Reuben, who come to buy hundreds of cattle from the North. They are not familiar faces, they are not the people known to be involved in buying cows. They said they are Catholics, that they also celebrate Christmas and other activities with the cattle. They said they would take them to the East and keep them till December,” he said.
“Honestly, I don’t think there is sense in what they said. The whole gimmick is to spark another crisis. Now that Boko Haram is technically defeated, some people are coming up with another problem that will confront the administration (of Buhari) so that it will lose focus, and fail,” he said.
Malam Ibrahim Falalu, a middle man in the Iware Cattle Market, one of the leading markets in Taraba State, said the involvement of Igbo merchants in cow business was a recent development in the state. “Each week, about five trucks loaded with 25 cows each, are taken to the East by Igbo cow merchants,” he said.
Another middle man,  Alhaji Ibrahim Yakubu, said on  Tuesdays, being the market day in Iware, “The Igbo merchants usually come with their trucks to load the animals and take them to the South-East,” he said.
Malam Salisu Rabi’u, an agent at Tella Cattle Market, said buying of cattle by Igbo merchants directly from the market in Taraba State is a recent development. He said findings have shown that they are not selling the animals at the cattle markets across the South-Eastern states.
“We don’t see those Igbos buying cows from our markets at the cattle markets in Enugu or Okigwe, where we usually take our cows to for sale. So, I think we have every right to ask where they are taking the markets to. Why the new trend?” He said.
Ahmadu Barrister, another dealer at the cattle market in Mararraban Ba’isa, Taraba State, said it was wrong to blame the Fulani. “The Igbo, and other tribes, who are equally into herding, are actively involved in most of the killings in the East and parts of the North,” he said.
Malam Dan’azumi, another dealer at the cattle market in Mubi, Adamawa State, said many Igbo people are now into cattle trading, and patronize the market on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
However, the chairman of Cattle Traders Association in Mubi, Usman Dan-Mainagge, said there was nothing unusual about Igbo merchants buying cattle from the market. “We have not witnessed something suspicious, our drivers convey the cattle to other parts of the country,” he stated.
A trader at Ngurore Cattle Market, Habu Gidado, said their rules did not allow buyers from the East or other parts of the South to transport their goods, saying market officials arranged for transportation. He explained that buyers from the South normally employ local agents to buy cattle on their behalf while some do so in person.
An activist, Suleiman Joe, said there was the need for security agencies to check the new trend of the cattle business in order to unravel the mystery behind the recent killings in the South-East. “We shouldn’t engage in blame game,” he said. “If there are facts that some people are now buying cows in large numbers and taking them to the East, government should track them and see what they are doing with them,” he said.