Meanwhile, Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State and the National Chairman of Myetti Allah, Alhaji Bello Bodejo, has warned that unless rampaging herdsmen were checked their incessant conflicts with farmers could ignite chaos in Nigeria 

 They spoke at the Government House, Abakaliki, during an enlarged security meeting over the recent herdsmen-villagers’ clash in Enyanwu Igwe, Igbeagu Community of Izzi Local Government Area, which left four persons dead with two others in critical conditions.

 Addressing the gathering, Umahi described the killings in Enyanwu Igwe village as unprovoked and ordered herdsmen around the area to leave the place until he calmed the embittered villagers down to avoid reprisal attacks.

 The governor said: “It is unprovoked killings, life is so sacred. You can’t kill people as if they are fowls.

 “Izzi people are warriors; I physically held them not to go for retaliation.
“The herdsmen there in Izzi have to leave the place for now until I calm everybody down.

 “The way we are going, it can provoke national war and it will not help anybody.
“If there is reprisal attack, I will hold all the leaders squarely responsible, I will charge all of you for any reprisal attack.

 “The life of every Ebonyian is very dear to me. God forbid, I can’t withstand where 76 people were killed like in Benue, I can’t withstand it.
“Some people may be fighting to die but we fight to live, let’s use wisdom to handle the matter.

 “This is a national problem; we don’t want our people to be continually killed.
“We must use wisdom to handle this problem. It is very easy to say I want all the herdsmen to leave Ebonyi but there are lots of implications.”

 He expressed regrets that agreement reached between the state and herdsmen in the area for peaceful co-existence was not adhered to.

 “We banned under-aged herders; we banned night grazing in the state.
“We have no grazing routes in Ebonyi, which means that nobody has the right to carry cattle by route to Ebonyi State, and we agreed on that.

 “We also agreed with the herdsmen that the first offender must be prosecuted.
“We also said that no farmer should go to the farm with a gun and no herdsmen should rear cattle with a gun or machete, it is the stick.
“We must abide by these rules,” he added.

 While addressing Umahi, the National Chairman of Myetti Allah, Bello Bodejo, aligned himself with the governor concerning the dangers of continued hostility between herders and farmers.

 He said the state had been very accommodating to the herdsmen, and warned that the hospitality should not be abused.

 “Ebonyi State is very peaceful and it is accommodating to our members.
“It has been so accommodating to our members even more than some Northern states of the federation, and we condemn these killings in this state.”
“There are minors and migrants who are causing these lots of problems. There are also criminals moving as cattle herders who are causing this havoc.

 “The state chairmen of Myetti Allah in the South-East and South-South are all here, and we are not happy with what happened; we condemn these killings in totality.
“Nigeria is confronted with so many security challenges and one of them is the unfortunate farmer/herder conflict.

 “If this conflict is not resolved, it has the potential of throwing this country into unnecessary chaos,” Bello Bodejo said