The umbrella body for herdsmen in
Nigeria, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, MACBAN, has provided
reasons it cannot be proscribed like the Federal Government did to the
Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.
Speaking with the Sun, the
Spokesman of MACBAN, Ismaila Ibrahim Ribeji, said unlike IPOB, that was
proscribed and declared a terrorist organisation for trying to create a
separate country from Nigeria, which was a constitutional breach, the herdsmen
have not done anything to warrant branding them, terrorists.
Ribeji, who first claimed that
they don’t know why the IPOB was declared terrorist group by Buhari, later
explained that the Biafra group breached the constitution by trying to create
another country.
According to him, “I don’t know
why Buhari declared IPOB terrorist, but I want everybody to understand that
herdsmen are not terrorists.
“It is not all of them that are
committing crimes. I’m not blind to say that some of the herdsmen are not
involved in the killings, just like other tribes are also involved in the
killings.
“It has to do with the
constitution of the country. The Fulani are scattered not only in Nigeria, but
also in Africa and other parts of the world, but if you consider the Nigerian
state, I don’t think there is any state where the Fulani organised themselves
and say they were going to fight the government and declare their own country.
“But in some states, IPOB has
said they were marginalised and they have organised themselves and said they
were going to declare their own country.
“So the Biafra people were trying
to declare for themselves an independent nation, why the Fulani people have not
declared themselves an independent nation, not even a local government. If you
look at the Nigeria constitution, anybody who tries to organise a coup plot or
people looking for another country from the Nigeria state, there is a
punishment.
“I don’t think that there is any
part of the country that the Fulani have declared as their own state, but those
people have carved their states, and said it is their own nation, and the
government saw that it was a breach of the law of the nation and no group was
supposed to behave in that way. The Fulani are not doing that.”
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You're aptly right on that. Fulani herdsmen are not terrorists, but, killers, marauders and land grabbers. They kill,maim and burn houses of innocent people which is even worse than IPOB group which has not killed even a fly in all their agitation.
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