Miyetti Speaks Tough, Says It Will Avenge Killing Of Herdsmen

Attack and killing of Fulani herdsmen the in any part of the country will be retaliated, the umbrella body for the pastoralists, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, has vowed.

Saleh Alhassan, the national secretary of the group, made this known in an interview with The PUNCH.

Alhassan alleged that the herders who are being attacked in some regions of the country are innocent.

He said the group will resist any attempt to force herders out of the south-west, as nobody has the right to send them packing from the region

“Nobody has the right (to evict herdsmen). If you say you are going to evict us, we will resist eviction. We have been surviving in harsh environments. If we do not resist, we will be wiped out of the planet. If you kill a herder, don’t go and sleep, we will revisit you, and it’s not because we hate your tribe. People attack herders, and in one way or the other, herders have found a way to retaliate,” Alhassan said.

He also lent credence to the claim of Bauchi governor, Bala Mohammed, who justified the bearing of arms by herdsmen.

Alhassan said those who are mulling banning entrance of herdsmen into Nigeria are bluffing and are only pandering to the sentiment of particular set of people, adding that ECOWAS conventions forbid such unilateral move.

“All those who travelled to the Benin Republic and others are coming back home. All those saying they will bar foreign herders from entering Nigeria are just playing to the gallery because if they are aware of the ECOWAS Protocols, they would know they cannot chase them away. That is why the position of the Bauchi State Governor is the true position. You have no right to evict anybody from any part of the country.

“Our number has increased recently because of the tension in Ghana and Benin Republics. The ones in Benin Republic have integrated with the Yoruba in such a way that they speak the language. They were initially living in the South-West, and they are coming back.

“They expected a reaction from us, maybe by way of attacking other ethnic nationalities. But that is wrong because the herders they are attacking are the innocent herders. Are the criminals representing anybody? They are doing their criminal enterprise. Our own pain is that the people who are supposed to know are pretending as if they don’t know.”

There has been growing tension over the activities of herders in the south-west. Some herders have been accused of kidnapping and killings in the region.

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