By Daniel Oluwatobiloba Popoola
Social media influencer, Martin Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, has alleged that cattle movement across Nigeria serves as a channel for money laundering, claiming that government officials invest stolen funds in cattle to launder the proceeds.
Otse made the claim while speaking during a panel session at the Nigerian Bar Association’s 66th Annual General Conference (NBA-AGC), themed “Beyond Limits,” held at the Yakubu Gowon Stadium, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The eight-day conference runs from Friday, 21 August, to Friday 28 August 2026, having opened with a Jumaat service on Friday, a press conference and swearing-in ceremony.
The event drew prominent
personalities, including Omoyele Sowore, Rotimi Amaechi and Peter Obi.
Addressing insecurity and its link to farmer-herder tensions, particularly in Benue State, Otse explained that clashes between farmers and herders were rooted in competing sources of livelihood.
“If the cows don’t move, people don’t die,” he said. Cattle, he said, remain central to the identity and culture of the Fulani people, whose greetings often revolve around the wellbeing of their livestock rather than their families.
He explained that Benue State, widely regarded as the food basket of the nation, depends largely on farming as its economic mainstay.
This reality puts the state on a collision course with herders whose cattle graze on farmlands.
“Now, your own source of income is eating my source of income. There will be a problem. Do you understand?” he said.
Farmers, driven to protect their crops, often killed cattle found grazing on their land. This, in turn, provoked retaliatory attacks from herders who consider their cattle inseparable from their livelihood.
Turning to the movement of cattle across major roads in the country, Otse alleged that the practice served as cover for laundering stolen public funds.
“You know why? It is money laundry. It’s the government,” he said.
A fully grown cow, he said, could sell for as much as two million naira, meaning a herder moving with 500 cows would effectively be transporting goods worth one billion naira.
He argued that government officials who had invested stolen funds in cattle resisted mandating in-house ranching, since ranching would strip the practice of the cover it provided for laundering money. “So the government, they invest in these cows.
To the money that have been stolen, they put it in the cows,” he said. He said 1,000 cows sold under such conditions could yield as much as two billion naira for their owners.
As Otse continued to expand on his claims, the session moderator intervened to redirect the discussion, cautioning him against taking over the stage. Otse responded that he was still breaking down his explanation before yielding the floor.
The moderator then reframed the discussion, noting that the conversation had shifted to whether insecurity in the country had been politicised. Otse, he said, had narrowed the issue in Benue State down to economic interests and profits accruing to investors in cattle ranching.
He pressed Otse to name the government officials he claimed were investing stolen funds in cattle, a question that set the stage for further exchange during the session.
