*South will block oil supply to the North – Fani-Kayode
*Nigeria, not only South owns, control oil, Fani-Kayode replied
*Told to cry less as he, his region only got what they asked for
*You say North means nothing to Nigeria and destroy their good and cows
…to save their valued economy they move to where it is valued, why the noise?
*Food Blockade: Are there no more elders i the North – Doyin Okupe
*Why Northern traders are right – Source
By OUR REPORTERS
“If it happened that Northerners are diverting their cow meat and food items to neighbouring country, nobody can blame them for it because, since they believe they are major contributors to agric-based economy although their haters in Southern part claim they see nowhere they are relevant to the nation’s economy, can you now blame them for proving their worth by selling their farm proceeds to where people not only value and appreciate their economic status but also enable them make their living without hate speeches and all the lies told against them all the times by their fellow country people here?” He asked.
Foodstuff and cattle dealers across the Northern part of the country have started diverting their goods and all consumables to the neigbouring countries of Niger Republic and Cameroon. They have also begun blocking trade routes to the South by stopping food item-laden trucks from going south, according to Tribune Newspaper.
According to the report, truckloads of food items from the northern part of the country were on Friday stopped by northerners from entering Kwara State and neighbouring states in the South West. A video clip showing the illegal stoppage of trucks carrying food items from the North to the South at a Jebba village in Niger State by some northern youths circulated on social media on Friday. But the Defence Headquarters clarified that following the tension generated by the incident, joint troops comprising the military and other security agencies were deployed to clear the Jebba-Kaduna Road and they had since restored normalcy in the general area.
Saturday Tribune reportedly gathered that some Northern youths prevented many trucks carrying items like tomatoes, onions, beans, yams and cattle from going beyond a location in Jebba called Kara into Kwara or other states to the South West. The situation, it was gathered, caused the trucks to park by the roadside with some of their contents already going bad. The development, it was learnt, was connected to an ultimatum given by the national leadership of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) to the Federal Government which demanded compensation for the losses suffered by Northern traders in the recent mayhem at Shasha market in Ibadan, Oyo State, and during the #EndSARS protest.
Also, the new trading network began shortly after the Northern Consensus Movement (NCM) and the Amalgamated Union of Foodstuff and Cattle Dealers of Nigeria commenced a strike on Thursday and blocked all ‘borders’ between the North and South.
The Northern groups also clarified on Friday that they were demanding only N4.7 billion as compensation for their members killed and properties destroyed during the Shasha crisis in Ibadan, Oyo State and the #EndSARs protests in the South Western and South Eastern parts of the country, against the earlier reported N475 billion.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Saturday Tribune on Friday, the National President, Northern Consensus Movement, Awwal Abdullahi Aliu, pointed out that the Federal Government had failed to meet all their demands, hence the commencement of the strike declared by the groups. He stated that all the border roads between the North and South West and the North and South East had been blocked against trucks carrying foodstuffs and other consumables from the North to any part of the South.
According Saturday Tribune, the vice chairman of the Kwara State branch of the MACBAN, Alli Mohammad, said Kwara State was yet to carry out the association’s demand except for some other northern states like Niger and Bauchi states which he said had started giving in to its demand. Mohammad, who said that a meeting had been scheduled for Sunday to decide when to start the implementation of the demand in Kwara State, added that in the event of default, the traders would not necessarily be disallowed from entering the state but the traders would not even come with their goods.
“Except those who may decide to take other routes to get to the state or those who may act in defiance to the directive, the traders would not come from the North and those who come may be stopped or sanctioned,” he said.
The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Ajayi Okasanmi, reportedly said that the command was not aware of such development in the state. But a son of the traditional ruler of Jebba, Prince Ibrahim Adebara, confirmed the development to Saturday Tribune. He said the incident happened at the Kara area of Niger State.
“The story is true but the incident did not happen in any part of the that axis of Kwara State. It was at the Kara area in Niger State. The Hausa people are not allowing trucks to get to the toll gate area of Niger State. The people refer to the area as Jebba North and call our own Jebba South. They generalise the place to be Jebba.
“The traders are not even happy with the development as some of the foodstuffs are already getting bad while they also lament loss over cost of transportation,” he said.
In a related development, Prince Adebara said the Jebba community would tomorrow (Sunday) carry out the eviction of some herdsmen who were trying to settle in the area, at the expiration of the ultimatum given to them.
“With bandits, insurgents and kidnappers being chased from some neighbouring states, the community decided with some of the identified and registered herdsmen who had been with us to ask the new ones to leave.
“Even those that had been with us say that they can’t vouch for them. So, they have been asked to leave in the interest of the existing peace. They are staying at Mofara village in Jebba community here. They will be driven away on Sunday and they are aware of this,” he said.
‘We are shipping our goods to Niger, Cameroon’
However, Aliu of the Northern Consensus Movement told Saturday Tribune that his people would not lose anything if the situation persists and the strike continues as the foodstuff and cattle dealers had discovered another marketing opportunity as a result of the current challenge.
He said: “As I speak to you, my people are already shipping their goods, onions, tomatoes and what have you to Niger, Cameroon, and other neighbouring countries through Illela border. Already, we have diversified. Our people have already found a way of not wasting their goods. They will not be wasted. They will be sold just like the way they were being moved to the South West, South East or South South.
“So, my people will end up not losing anything. We did not arrange this one, it just came up. Automatically, it started happening. People just quickly saw it and the goods started moving in those directions.”
Aliu said the Northern groups had made three simple demands from the Federal Government aftermath of the #EndSARs protest and Shasha crisis, which include guarantee of the safety of lives and properties of Northerners living in other part of the country, compensation for the lost souls, creation of national regional market across border towns and reestablishment of toll gates.
He said what was happening now was strategic, adding that after the #EndSARs protest, the NCM, which is the umbrella body of all the groups, had “called the Amalgamated Union, the Cattle Dealers Association and all other associations to a discussion table and we have been discussing, strategising on what to do, and this is just the phase one of what we are going to do.” ‘We’ve blocked all roads to south”
On the strike, he said: “The strike has started. There is no movement of goods and any consumables from the North to the South. It has been blocked. I will send you some videos to see the areas that have been blocked and the progress we are making so far,” he told the Tribune journalist.
“The roads have been blocked by our members, all the entry borders between the North and the South, and between the North and the East. All the border towns between North and South, North and East, North and West where the vehicles pass have been blocked.
“Every angle, from North West, North East, North Centre, all the borders have been blocked; even between Borno and Yobe, between Yobe and Bauchi, to Taraba, Nasarawa, to Abuja, and Abuja to Lokoja. And then Sokoto to Katsina, to Kebbi, to Zamfara, Kano, Kaduna, to Niger.”
Aliu regretted that despite the letters and warnings of the groups to the governments at the federal and state levels and the security agencies, the Federal Government had not met their demands “up to this very moment and we do not intend to withdraw until something tangible is achieved. So, the strike continues.”
He said: “No government representative has gotten across to us on this issue of the protest and strike going on. We have also not made any further attempt. Like I said in the beginning, we have reached out to all people that are concerned as far as Nigeria is concerned; personally, the president, then the presidency, the Chief of Staff to the President, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and the security echelon.
“We have written to the National Security Adviser, the Minister of Defence, the Minister of Interior, the Inspector General of Police, Director General of DSS and Comptroller General of Civil Defence. We have written to the Senate and the House of Representatives.
“Back in the North, we have written to each of the 19 Northern state governors, the Northern Governors Forum through their chairman, the Houses of Assembly of the 19 states, and the chairman of the 19 state Houses of Assembly. We have written to all first class emirs of each state and also the chairman of the Northern Traditional Council Forum, the Sultan of Sokoto, all Northern Elders Committee, the Arewa Consultative Forum, and the Northern Elders Forum.
“We have also gotten across to the United Nations Secretary General, written to the American Parliament, and the British Parliament, notifying them of what is going on and we needed them to intervene because we call it systematic elimination, destruction and killing of Northerners. We are having a Boko Haram and banditry challenge, and the ones that are moving to go and find daily bread outside the North are also now being killed.”
Aliu added: “The blow is too much for Northern Nigeria, both from bandits and those that were supposed to be our brothers. We have also informed them that we never have issue with either a Yoruba man or an Igbo man. As far as we are concerned, the Igbo man owns houses, shops farmlands in the North without hindrance.
“While our people are petty traders in the South, wheelbarrow pushers, shoe shiners, okada riders, the Igbos and Yorubas own houses and multi-million naira investments in the North. We are accommodating, so why are our people being killed at the slightest provocations and their property destroyed?”
On the issue of compensation, he regretted that a question from a journalist during a press conference held last week made him angry and this caused him to make a mistake while giving the amount requested for compensation. He said: “When I mentioned N475 billion, it was a slip of tongue. What we actually requested is N4.7 billion, not N475 billion. I was angry with the question one of the journalists asked. You know journalist can ask you provocative questions.
“The question got me provoked and when I was trying to say N4.7 billion, I made a mistake by saying N475 billion. What we wrote to all Federal Government agencies is N4.7 billion and we broke it down with the number of people that have been killed.
“By the Islamic injunction and Northern tradition, compensation for life is N35 million for one life. We calculated the money by the number of people that were killed and put it together. We lost over 100 open-body trucks and each truck head, without the body, cost N56 million. We lost about 75 (18-seater) buses, then a lot of cow forcefully seized and distributed during the EndSARs crisis, and bags of rice and beans. All these things are what we put together to arrive at a figure. We didn’t just call a figure, we calculated the number of people that died, property destroyed, those injured and arrived at a figure for compensation, not outright payment for the losses.”
He added: “It is the responsibility of the government to protect lives and properties. If anything goes wrong and they were unable to protect lives and properties, they should pay for that loss. “We also say the government should fish out the perpetrators of the act, who are people that came out and do this killing? Government should arrest them, prosecute them, and let us see them being sentenced accordingly.”
‘Sardauna asked us to establish regional markets’
Also on the issue of regional markets, he said: “government should create national regional market because since our people are moving their goods from the North to the South, West and East, and in the process, our people are being killed, we don’t want our people to be killed. Nigeria is one country with one destiny under God, and we love being Nigerian, let there be national regional market in border towns between North and the West, North and the South, North and the East, as Sardauna first initiated.
“It was Sardauna’s initiative that there should be regional markets where Northerners would move their goods from the North and go and drop them in those regional border town markets. The Southerners or Westerners or Easterners will also bring their own goods and drop them in those markets. I buy from you what you bring from the West or East, then you buy from me what I bring from the North. You take your own to your zone and I take mine to my zone. There will be no shipment of heavy trucks with a lot of loads that somebody will way-lay on the road and begin to destroy and kill.
“But we said that does not mean that Northerners that are living in the South, West or East should come back to the North or the Southerners, or Westerners, or Easterners that are in the North should go back to their own region. No, they can live where they choose. Nigeria is a free country and by constitution, you can live anywhere. So, let whoever wants to live anywhere live there but for intra-market transaction, let there be a market in the center.”
The South will block oil supply to the North – Fani-Kayode
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode, in his reaction to the development, disclosed that the South would block oil supply to the North, if the Northern states stop the supply of food to the South.
He said this following the report that some Northerners had decided to stop the transportation of food items, including cows to the Southern part of Nigeria.
According to Fani-Kayode on his Facebook social media handle, if the north blocks food supplies to the south, the south will in return block the supply of oil, refined products and oil money to the north.
“If the north blocks food supplies to the south, the south will block the supply of oil, refined products and oil money to the north. You touch me, I touch you! You do me, I do you! You Tarka me, I Daboh you!
“It’s called the law of reciprocity. Never start a dance you can’t finish!”
Nigeria, not only South owns, control oil, Fani-Kayode replied
But Fani-Kayode, in a swift reply to him, was told to go and know that the oil and other mineral resources in the country belong to Nigeria regardless of where it is sited.
A source in a message to The DEFENDER on Sunday said: “It is only expected that in a time like this, people like Femi Fani-Kayode, who has benefited immensely from Nigeria, will always be concerned about way to solution rather than fueling the same crisis that he was part of brewing by his open role in how the IPOB started and grew wings and other crisis that saw us to where we are that Fulani, Hausa and Muslims in Nigeria profiled and tagged as enemies of other tribes and religion of the country.
“Anyway, if attitude to the situation is to say that the South will block the oil supply to the North for the Northern traders crying out aloud over the killing of their members, destructions of their markets and hate speeches being peddled that have endangered their lives and freedom of free movement across Southern Nigeria, then I will like him to know that Nigeria not only the South owns and controls the oil and other mineral resources. What that means is that, Femi is only making empty threat because, you are part of the reasons these Northern traders, who you have always screamed should not be helped by Federal Government by any bailout saying it is their private business, are subjected to danger. Now that they have a way of diverting their trades to where they pay, what is your cry about that you now want to, because of that, commit constitutional breach that can only land you in big problem you may never come out of?
“I mean, you say North means nothing to Nigeria and that for that reason you destroy their cows and food times. You don’t even want to hear the that the North feeds you even as Yoruba man living in the South because with all the money you think you have more than the Federal Government, if you have no North around you, may be you will have to order your daily food your Britain, America and what have you.
“So, how can you now be crying aloud over effort being made by the same people you regard as useless and who only are bettering their trades by diverting their markets to Niger and Cameroon? Are you now ashamed of yourself for once, Femi Fani-Kayode?” He asked.
Why Northern traders are right – Source
This action may have come following boasts by some Southern elements insisting that the North contributes nothing to national economy and so are the ones eating fat on the economy of the country and thus killing their overall growth.
The elements, per adventure in furtherance of their secessionist struggle, have taken to the social media and physically in the streets to say that the North is no more than being about tomatoes and that without them they would live fine in the South and develop their region. Further proofs were shown in the number of trailer-loads of food items and cows from North which were set on fire including human occupants during the #EndSARS protests in Lagos and Port Harcourt, Rivers State precisely. Same was repeated during the Shasha crisis in Ibadan, Oyo State.
During our checks, a source told The DEFENDER that, “If it happened that Northerners are diverting their cow meat and food items to neighbouring country, nobody can blame them for it because, since they believe they are major contributors to agric-based economy although their haters in Southern part claim they see nowhere they are relevant to the nation’s economy, can you now blame them for proving their worth by selling their farm proceeds to where people not only value and appreciate their economic status but also enable them make their living without hate speeches and all the lies told against them all the times by their fellow country people here?” He asked.
Doyin Okupe appeals
Reacting to the development of food blockade from the North, Dr. Doyink Okupe, former Special Adviser on Media and Publicity Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, is appealing to Northern elders to prevail on the traders.
In a short statement he posted on his Facebook handle, Okupe said, “Are there no more elders in the North? Where are the stakeholders in this nation? A stitch in time saves nine. The plan of evil of to destabilize Nigeria will fail in Jesus name,” he said.
