Miyetti Allah Orders Herdsmen To Defend Themselves Against Attacks

Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore has directed Fulani herdsmen to defend themselves against any ethnic militia.

Naija News recalls that the Northern Elders Forum at ordered herdsmen to leave the South and return to the North if their safety is not guaranteed.

Reacting President Muhammadu Buhari asked Fulani herdsmen in the South to ignore the call by northern elders asking them to return to the North.

Speaking to The Punch, the National Secretary of Miyetti Allah, Saleh Alhassan, urged herdsmen to defend their constitutional right.

He stated that herdsmen would remain where they were and that governors would be held responsible should anything happen to them.

According to Alhassan, “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 on the solution to persistent herdsmen and farmer clash, Alhassan called for the establishment of grazing reserves.

“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.