Armed herdsmen are currently operating as Fulani vigilante in Ondo State, Kayode Ajulo, human rights lawyer, has alleged.
Mr Ajulo stated this on Monday while debunking media reports that he was ambushed by Fulani herdsmen while returning to Abuja for the state.
The lawyer in a social media post Monday evening admitted that although he was in the state at the weekend for his mother’s investiture as the Iya-Ijo (Chief Matron) of the Christ Anglican Church in the state, he had no clash with Fulani vigilante as reported in the media.
“On my way back to Abuja on the 22nd 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,” Ajulo wrote.
“On sighting them, inquiry was made as to their duty on the highway with guns in their hands, being not uniformed men. They thereafter responded that they were members of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Vigilante group whose operation is known to all the security apparatus in the area.
“Also, they willingly showed us their identity cards which had their names and designations. Some other security men came to corroborate their claims.
“I therefore wish to debunk the account that I was stopped by Fulani Herdsmen as peddled by some persons. Our interaction is a voluntary undertaking as part of my profiling as a discerning leader of my community, desirous of curbing the menace of insecurity in Nigeria,” his statement partly read.
A similar demand by the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) to step up vigilante groups, made up of youths from Fulani extraction, in parts of South-East region as an avenue to address insecurity in the zone was rejected by state governors from the area.
