A Fulani group Gan Allah Fulani Development Association has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to pull out of the ECOWAS protocol on free movement.
According to the National President of the association, Alhaji Sale Bayari, the agreement is negatively affecting Nigeria’s internal security.
He stated that the free movement protocol has allowed people of questionable characters from other countries to gain entry into the country, saying criminals hide under the free movement protocol.
In 2014, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) had revealed that there were more than 1,400 illegal border routes in the country while there were 84 approved land border control posts at the time.
ECOWAS protocol-free movement is one of the opportunities member countries are exploring among their population to expand harmonious relations.
Bayari made the statement while reacting to the proposed anti-open grazing bill in Oyo State which has passed second reading.
“Regional integration can generally be seen as nation-states in a territorial region voluntarily deferring sovereignty to intergovernmental or supranational institutions in order to better their condition as a whole through cooperation,” omicsonline.org said in one of its researched papers.
Commenting on the anti-open grazing in Oyo, he advocated human face and alternative grazing space before the bill is passed into law in the parliament, adding that small and light weapons are not only in the hands of herdsmen, but all Nigerians are suffering insecurity.
He said cases of kidnap had reduced drastically in the South-West geo-political zone since the group met with former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta recently.
“We pledge today that we shall ensure that our members are law-abiding, obedient and respectful to constituted authorities while promising to go all out to ensure that criminal elements were flushed out of our communities and ethnic group which may even make the enactment of the anti-open grazing law no longer necessary or absolute,” The Sun quoted him as saying.
“We call for a human face to this law in the event it becomes absolutely necessary to promulgate and pass into law. We appeal for an alternative grazing space for our means of livelihood, which is the cattle, which we are rearing as peasant traditional stock owners, not as commercial livestock or cattle business stakeholders.”