The Miyetti Allah factor in Nigeria

inclusion of Miyetti Allah to the roundtable describing it as “a grave insult” to them.

“We observed that the roundtable will have in attendance all the national security heads, chief of defence staff and notable Nigerians. We, however, noticed further that in your category of Socio-cultural organisations invited, you listed the following: PANDEF, Afenifere, Ohanaeze, Middle Belt Forum, Arewa Consultative Forum, Northern Leaders Forum, and Northern Elders Forum.

“We were comfortable up to that point until we saw the following: Gan Allah Fulani Development Association, and Miyetti Allah,” the forum said.

According to them, lumping Miyetti Allah, a trade association for cattle herders and whose members have been accused of various violations of rights, including life, across the country, sends a worrisome signal to them.

“It falls into the categorisation of our respected socio-cultural platforms with Miyetti Allah by Presidential Spokesman, Garba Shehu. We consider the above as a grave insult on our bodies and our coming to a roundtable with the group would mean acquiescence to the narrative that put us in the same bracket with those wielding illegal AK-47 all over the country and inflicting terror on fellow citizens,” they said.

They added: “Even if the above was not the case with Miyetti Allah, bringing a trade group like them in the same vehicle with the nationalities organisations would not have beenappropriateasthereareorganisations of their category for fishermen, farmers, spare parts dealers, and poultry owners among others.

BDSUNDAY can recall that the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has come under serious attack as it was rumoured that the Presidency has been meeting with the Fulani group, and offering them money in exchange for peace.

Meanwhile, Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, who was a guest on Channels TV’S Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, May 7, 2019, described Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) as a sociocultural group that can be likened to Afenifere and Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo socio-cultural groups.

Shehu, who advised Nigerians not to criminalise the group, also defended the meeting between Mohammed Adamu, inspectorgeneral of Police, and the leadership of the Miyetti Allah.

He said the government needed the cooperation of Miyetti Allah to help in tackling weapons proliferation in order to reduce the raising insecurity in the country.

Controversial N100bn largesse by FG

Shehu denied offering money to the Miyetti Allah group as payoff to stop killings, adding that the most prominent topic of discussion during their meetings was how the cultural group could help the government to retrieve weapons from its “errant members”.

“The discussion between the Miyetti Allah and the government is a ‘win-win situation’ for everybody as they have also tabled their own issues for intervention. A lot of them had come forward to say that criminality is growing among some of their young people because they had been dispossessed of their livelihood, cattle,” Shehu said.

Before now, BDSUNDAY gathered that Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of Police, and some government officials were under fire for allegedly promising to pay Miyetti Allah N100 billion as amnesty to curb the rise in banditry, kidnapping and killings.

Meanwhile, Saleh Alhassan, national secretary, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, said his group demanded from the Federal Government the payment of N100 billion to herders for the construction of ranches, and not for amnesty as reported.

Alhassan said there was nothing wrong if Buhari honoured a promise made by former president Goodluck Jonathan to the farmers to support his re-election in 2015.

“If today, the Buhari government sees policy that was there since 2014 and wants to see how it can be implemented by supporting cattle breeders, not just Fulani but anybody that is breeding livestock, to access facility like the Anchor Borrowers, farmers have with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), I do not think it calls for propaganda,” Alhassan said.

He added that after Jonathan left, the initiative was suspended, hence the decision of the group to present the matter to the President Muhammadu Buhari government for implementation. Alhassan said that after Jonathan left, the initiative But the question social commentators are asking is, ‘how many of the policies, even the overtly good ones, left over by the Jonathan administration are being implemented by the Buhari government?

Working with Miyetti Allah to achieve peace

Surprisingly, it was not only the Federal Government that claims it was working with the Miyetti Allah (the group accused of mass killing) to restore peace in the country as it was reported that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), on Monday, June 24, 2019 promised to work with the leadership of the Miyetti to achieve peace and stability in the country.

Samson Ayokunle, president of CAN, promised in a statement signed by his special assistant, Adebayo Oladeji, in Abuja recently. He urged the leadership of the MACBAN to expose the criminal elements among Fulani herdsmen.

Just recently, it was also established that the group was seeking approval to mount road blocks and form vigilante in the South-west and South-east regions, and this request met utmost resistance.

For instance, the Southeast Governors’ Forum on Monday, June 24, kicked against the demand by the Miyetti Allah to establish a vigilance group in the southeast to protect their members.

MACBAN made the proposal during the southeast security summit held in Enugu, with the aim of proffering solution to lingering clashes between herders and farmers in the region.

“I find it extremely strange for anybody to think that none locals in any part of the country including southeast could be allowed to form vigilante outfit. The Miyetti Allah group may have made that suggestion, but no governor will allow that. Southeast governors have their local vigilantes working with security agencies,” the statement read:

It further stated that such demand by Miyetti group is a joke and not acceptable. Similarly, Kayode Ajulo, a human right lawyer, recently raised the alarm that members of Miyetti Allah are now manning Ondo State’s major highways.

Ajulo, in a post on his social media page, said he saw members of the group mounting the checkpoints along the highway while travelling from Akoko in Ondo State to Abuja.

“On my way back to Abuja on the 22 day of July, 2019, in the company of some security men, we saw two men at the highway around Akoko, Ondo State carrying Dane guns. On sighting them, inquiry was made as to their duty on the highway with guns in their hands, being not uniformed men but we discovered that they claimed to be members of Miyetti Allah,” he reportedly said.

Confirming this, Femi Fani-kayode, a former minister of aviation, said recently on his twitter handle that Fulani vigilantes are mounting roadblocks and harassing people in South-west, and “when challenged, they brought out Miyetti Allah identity cards!”

“Have we become slaves in our fathers land? Every single Yoruba person that supports the All Progressive Congress (APC) should bow their heads in shame! The Fulani are slaughtering thousands of Igbos, Yorubas and other southerners all over the south. Is it so difficult to accept that the Nigerian people are fed up with the barbaric tendencies of the Fulani..?” he questioned. He narrated that Fulani terrorists recently kidnapped three people on the Lagos-ibadan Expressway.

“Buhari has failed to provide security, has refused to declare the herdsmen as terrorists and has encouraged the establishment of Fulani militias and vigilantes in South-west. They are pushing us to the brink,” he warned.

On his part, Leke Akintayo, one of the factional leaders of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), a Yoruba nationalist organisation in Osun State, popularly called Olojongbodu, recently issued an ultimatum on behalf of the Congress during a peace meeting held with the leaders of Gan Allah Fulani Development Association of Nigeria and Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, in Osogbo.

Akintayo warned the herdsmen to fish out its members involved in the spate of kidnapping, banditry, and robberies across the region in recent weeks. He vowed that OPC waspreparedtodefendthepeopleof the region against criminal elements.

“Osun had been adjudged to be the most peaceful state in Nigeria not until recently when the so-called Fulani herders invaded our land and started kidnapping our people.

“It was quite unfortunate that some unscrupulous elements tried to find their way to the state through their collaborators to launch attacks on innocent citizens along some highways and we would not allow themtodestroyourstate.wewould use everything within our reach to ensure that those bad eggs among the Fulani herders are flushed out of the state,” he warned.