Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar the third, has said armed herdsmen perpetrating violence in the country were foreign terrorists.

The Eid prayer was attended by Second Republic President, Shehu Shagari; Governor Aminu Tambuwal; his deputy, Ahmed Aliyu; and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, among other dignitaries.

Abubakar, President-General of the Jama’atul Nasir Islam, said, all those so-called Fulani herdsmen, moving with guns, causing violence, fighting with farmers are not Nigerians.

According to him, these are foreigners coming into Nigeria to cause a breach of the peace of the nation, saying they are therefore terrorists and should be treated as such by the Nigerian security agencies.

He stated that some “bad eggs” had infiltrated the Nigerian Fulani herdsmen, challenging the security agencies to be proactive.

Abubakar, however, admitted that there were problems between the Fulani herdsmen and the farmers, which should only be resolved through dialogue.

The monarch stressed the need for all Nigerians to live peaceably with one another, irrespective of religious or ethnic differences.

But the Christian Association of Nigeria has challenged the Sultan to provide some information about cattle rearers terrorising the country to security agents if he insisted they were foreign terrorists and not Nigerians.

General Secretary of CAN, Musa Asake, said it was possible that the Sultan knew something about them.

The sultan, however, underscored the imperative of sustainable peace if the country was to fully develop.

On the ongoing hardship in the country, the Sultan appealed to Nigerians to go back to the farms and to learn to be more productive, rather than solely waiting for the government to provide all their needs.

The Sultan promised to continue to offer prayers, advice and wise counsel to the state and federal governments.

He stressed the need for leaders to continue to be just to all Nigerians, irrespective of their political differences.