By Miracle Ogunde
The leadership of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), South East zone has claimed that its members have been languishing in prison custody without trial for the past five years.
The South East zonal chairman of MACBAN, Alhaji Gidado Siddikki, who spoke in Awka, Anambra state capital on Sunday, described the way some herders were being labelled as kidnappers and armed robbers and eventually dumped into Correctional Center, as regrettable.
In Siddiki’s words, ”We are here for our business which we are all aware, is ranching of cows in the bushes and not fog kidnapping.
“Many of our people have been in the prison for more than five years without the government looking into their case files or try them,” he said.
While pleading for timely trial, Siddiki said, “On behalf of MACBAN in the South East, I am appealing to the state government through the Ministry of Justice and the Prison authority in the state, to look into the matter, so that our people that are in the prison custody will either be executed, free or sentence according to the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, after trial.
According to him, “The association stands on its position that any fulani herder who is caught in any criminal act in the cause of discharging his legitimate business will be dealt with in accordance with the laws of the association.
“MACBAN, under my watch in South East, will continue to support the social-economic development of the region.”
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