A non-governmental Organisation, Advocacy for Advancement of Peace
& Harmony in Africa Initiative (ADAPHAI) has described the
activities and utterances of members of the Miyetti Allah Cattle
Breeders Association of Nigeria(MACBAN) as a serious threat to National
Security, calling for urgent action to avert imminent danger.
The statement was made on Monday through the Executive Director of
the organisation, Mr Olaniyi Owolabi while speaking on the recent
clashes between herdsmen and farmers.
Owolabi said the recent killings of farmers in the North Central, and
gruesome murder of villagers in Kaduna State portend serious threat to
National Security, and a recipe to internal uprising.
He recalled the Ekiti saga, where Miyetti Allah Cattle breeders
Association of Nigeria issued a threat of imminent attack on Ekiti
people over the alleged killings of cows in the state and ban on open
rearing of cows through Grazing Reserve Act.
He noted that the continued massacre of innocent Nigerians in the
hands of herdsmen was unacceptable and barbaric, saying such act must
stop quickly for the purpose of national cohesion.
According to him, “there is limit to what people can take in their
stride when it comes to brutal oppression and calculated elimination,
communities in the Southern Kaduna and elsewhere where people were being
killed in hundreds are potential theatres of war, if something is not
done very fast.
The Peace Advocate averred that the organisation had concluded a
comprehensive research on the mode and pattern of attacks by the
herdsmen, including their source of armament, and discovered shocking
revelations that seriously pose a threat to national security.
He, therefore, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to quickly
mobilise various security agencies in the country to check the
activities of Fulani herdsmen and invariably avert possible internal
uprising of “unimaginable magnitude”.
In his words, ”the covert reality of the incessant clashes between
cattle rearers and farmers anywhere in Nigeria is ” a wrapped
infringement” of people’s rights with impunity.
“By our mandate and objectives, we are statutorily a whistle blower
on issues that pose threat to peace and National Security, and our voice
should be compulsorily louder in the face of dicey security challenges
in Nigeria, and Africa at large.
” The bloodbaths in various communities of Nigeria as a result of
rifts between cattle rearers and farmers compelled us to embark on
painstaking research and methodological findings on the burning issue of
continuous clashes over grazing territories between herdsmen and
farmers.
“Our findings convincingly revealed that the style of grazing by
cattle rearers adversely affect the farmers economically and infringes
on their rights of ownership without remorse, which make them to
confront cattle rearers most of the times in which the Fulani herdsmen
responded with violence.
“We authoritatively gathered that the Miyyeti Allah Cattle Breeders
Association of Nigeria has a Standing Army of Occupation who they call
upon anytime there is hostility between them and their host communities.
“Also, the association, as a matter of policy make it compulsory for
its members to contribute annually to a funding pool for the purpose of
procuring armament, through some syndicates in different security
agencies and powerful Nigerians who are cattle owners or sympathisers.
“The concentration of this Fulani Standing Army of Occupation (FSAO)
on the plateau makes attacks in States like Benue, Nasarawa, Plateau,
Enugu and Kaduna to be callously brutal.
“On many occasions, FSAO supplies sophisticated weapons to brave
nomads for preliminary attacks where they encounter confrontation from
frustrated farmers, and mobility for the FSAO proves difficult because
of distance.
“Sincerely, this is a serious threat to our indivisibility and
corporate entity, the president as a matter of exigency should direct
security agencies in the country to wade in and professionally
investigate the veracity of these findings without fair or favour to
save our dear country from impeding danger,” Owolabi resorted.
– Daily Post