By Chesa Chesa
Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, and former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, on Wednesday led the leadership of the Amalgamated Union of Food and Cattle Dealers of Nigeria (AFUCDN), to the Presidential Villa, Abuja to plead President Muhammadu Buhari’s intervention over the recent food blockage the union imposed on the Southern part of the country.
The team met with the Chief of Staff to President, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, who received it on behalf of the President.
Speaking to journalists afterwards, Governor Bello said he had worked with Fani-Kayode to reach out the major stakeholders on both sides and insisted on the need for peace to reign.
He disclosed that he had gotten the commitment from parties to sheath their swords in order to end the hardship that has accompanied the food embargo.
The Governor said: “I’ve gotten the commitment of the Union, in order for us not to continue to have this hardship across the country, to lift the ban on food and livestock transportation to the south.
“I’ve also gotten major commitment from people from the south not to attack people of Hausa/Fulani and the traders in the south and that the criminals among them irrespective of tribe and religion should be handed over to law enforcement agents.
“I’ve also gotten the commitment that their lives and properties will be protected also.
“So, these are the messages we brought to the the Chief of Staff to convey to the President.”
Bello also spoke on the demands which the traders want the president to meet saying: “Number one demand is to ensure that their goods and the lives of their members anywhere in the country are safe.
“On this note, we have brought the demands to Mr. President, through the Chief of Staff and how we’ve been able to resolve the matter. The Chief of Staff is going to convey the message to Mr. President.
“The association demanded that it’s members that are killed, they are requiring that compensation be paid for the lives and livelihood that were destroyed in the South.
“All those who committed those crimes should be brought to justice, the harassment by law enforcement agencies on our federal highways be stopped, the extortion by all touts along federal highways, especially from northeast or from the north to south-south and southeast, particularly, be stopped.
“We’ve presented those demands to the government because before now, they have reached out to every authority in the land and there seemed to be no positive response to the demand.”
He further said: “I have the mandate to resolve the issue. We’ve been able to reach out to major actors in the southwest to desist allow peace to reign. We’ve gotten commitment on both sides to sheath their swords.”
Also speaking on the move, Fani-Kayode said but for the timely intervention, the crisis which he described as a very complicated issue, would definitely have snowballed into a major crisis of in the country.
He described the intervention led by Bello and his team as “more or less like a miracle” as they acted within 72 hours which led to a positive resolution.
“And that is extremely impressive. And I believe that by this intervention in national issue, if we have this sort of strong leadership across party lines across party lines, our country would be a much better place in the future”, he added.
