A former Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Samuel Afolayan (retd.), has alleged that the Nigeria Police knows the sponsors of the dreaded Fulani herdsmen committing atrocities across the country but cannot arrest them.
He said he was pointedly told by the police that the sponsors of the herdsmen though known, could not be arrested when he reported the numerous attacks on his farm to the Kwara State Police command.
He noted that the police said their sponsors were highly placed individuals.
Afolayan stated this in an interview with Punch Newspaper.
He said he was told this when he reported the destruction of his farmland to the police.
The ex-naval chief said there have been numerous attacks on his farm by herdsmen but he has been silent on the attacks to avoid escalating the tension in the country but decided to speak out for the first time in January.
He explained that he has had to seize some of the herders’ cows to stall the attacks but they forcefully reclaimed them.
He said the owners of the cows were highly placed persons residing outside the state. According to Afolayan, he told the police to bring one of them in for questioning but was told that it would be difficult.
“I said that is an injustice. How do you remand a boy that is of no consequence when the boy had already told you that the owner of the cows is in Zamfara State?
“He gave the number of his employer and I said the police should invite the man who owns the cows and they were telling me that it would be difficult. What is difficult in that? The police can arrest anybody wherever he or she lives in Nigeria.”
Afolayan maintained that the federal government was not doing enough to address the attacks while calling on it to take drastic actions.