Miyetti Allah to herdsmen: Defend yourselves against ethnic militia groups

Barely 72 hours after President Muhammadu Buhari asked Fulani
herdsmen in the South to ignore the call by northern elders asking
them to return to the North, the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, the
umbrella body for Fulani herdsmen in the country, has asked its
members to defend themselves against any ethnic militia group in
the country, saying herders should exercise their rights to free
movement as Nigerians.

The National Secretary of the group, Saleh Alhassan, in a
telephone interview with one of our correspondents on Thursday,
also said that governors in the southern part of the country would
be held responsible if any of their members was attacked.

The South-East Governors Forum, through its Director-General,
Prof Simon Ortuanya, had recently warned that movement of cattle
into the zone by foot would no longer be allowed except through
trucks to specific cow markets to avoid the incessant clashes
between herders and farmers.

The position of the governors was echoed by the Ohanaeze Youth
Council worldwide a few days ago when it warned herdsmen to stop
moving around bushes and farmlands across the South-East.

The council’s President General, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, pointed
out that starting from Saturday, July 20, 2019 (today), there would
be severe consequences if herdsmen were caught moving around on
foot with their cattle.

Also, the Yoruba nationalist organisation, Oodua Peoples
Congress, had through its President, Prince Osibote Oodua, warned
kidnappers and herdsmen engaged in criminal activities to stop or
they would be forced to vacate the region. It stressed that it was
ready to flush out those abducting innocent Nigerians.

The leadership of the three indigenous youth groups from the
major southern geopolitical zones, including the Ijaw Youth Council
in the South-South, had equally said three days ago that they could
no longer tolerate the killings and threats from herdsmen in the
zones.

Following the warnings, members of the Northern Elders Forum and
the Coalition of the Northern Groups had on Tuesday asked herdsmen
to leave the southern part of the country and return to the North
where their safety could be guaranteed, a directive the President
and all the southern groups had condemned.

But, speaking on Thursday, Alhassan said herdsmen would remain
where they were and that governors of the respective states would
be held responsible should anything happen to their members.

He said, “We are Nigerians and we have a history. Anybody that
thinks he can wake up and take on the Fulani pastoralist is making
a grievous mistake; we are well prepared to defend our fundamental
human rights of movement in this country.

“They (herdsmen) are Nigerians, so they are entitled to stay
where they are. They should remain where they are and defend
themselves against ethnic militia and assert their citizenship in
this country.

“The only thing we would say is that we will hold all the
governors of those states responsible for their safety and
security, but if any ethnic militia, by any name, attacks our
members, they should defend themselves in a manner that nobody
would try such again.

“We have been saying it that people behind insecurity are not
herders; bandits are behind these killings, and if the government
is saying foreigners have infiltrated the herders, have they been
arrested and what is their nationality? Anybody that is trying to
destabilise this country should be dealt with.”

Speaking further on the call by some northern groups that they
should vacate the southern part of the country, Alhassan said,
“Those so-called northern youths called coalition of northern
groups should note that if because of their action any herder is
killed, we will first look for them before we go after our
enemies.

“We are Nigerians and we are not going anywhere. Our attachment
to the land is opportunistic; we don’t farm the land. So, if
anybody is thinking that because he has cultivated the land in a
particular place for long and he has rights there more than us,
then we would ask where is the grazing area that the colonial
masters created for us?

“Politicians can play their politics but they should leave our
people out of it because it is the desperate politicians that are
causing this confusion and they are looking for anything to hang on
to, but we are watching them critically.

“If you threaten the herders, they react; they cannot be used
for any political game because we have our way of defending
ourselves. We hate injustice and we fight it. Anybody that thinks
we can be squeezed is making a mistake.”

Asked the solution to the persistent clashes between herders and
their host communities, he said grazing reserves that were carved
out before the country’s independence should be developed to serve
their purposes.

“When we begin to discuss the Nigeria question, we would ask
where the grazing reserves are because we know them and we have the
records of where they are,” he added.

But, in their separate responses, the Ohanaeze, OPC and Ijaw
Youth Counciln said Miyetti Allah was testing the patience of the
various ethnic militia groups.

Culled from Punch

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