‘Fulani in Riyom not stockpiling weapons’

The Fulani community in Mahanga, Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State has threatened legal action against a national daily (not Daily Trust) which published a report two weeks ago alleging that the community was stockpiling weapons and has been launching attacks on all north central states, including southern Kaduna.

The Ardo of Riyom, Muhammadu Adamu who lives in Mahanga, stated in a communiqué after hours of meetings with other leaders of the community that the author of the writeup who was not from Plateau and did not reside in Plateau had fabricated lies to serve a hidden agenda even when the Commander, Operation Safe Haven, Major General Rogers Nicholas had told him that his assertions about Mahanga were untrue.

Adamu called on security agencies to arrest the writer and make him show where ‘the imagined weapons’ were being kept.

The Chairman Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association in Nigeria (MACBAN), Plateau state chapter, Muhammad Nuru Abdullahi told journalists that the newspaper had a hidden agenda. “Even when we invited them to counter the report, they refused to come. Again, they claimed to have spoken to the Berom who provided them with the information but during a town hall meeting at Barkin Ladi, the Berom traditional leaders said they had nothing to do with the report, so who was the author quoting? Where did he get his facts from? Perhaps he would explain it in court.”

He said the report in question showed a bias against the Fulani race. “Obviously the publishers of that report carry deep rooted hatred for the Fulani. Their aim is to cause crisis in Plateau state and to uproot us from this place (Mahanga) but we are going nowhere because our grandparents were born here and this is our home,” he said.