Herdsmen under Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) has called for the immediate arrest of former president, Olusegun Obasanjo.
The demand of the pastoralists is in response to the open letter of the former president wherein President Muhammadu Buhari was called upon to decisively tackle the insecurity bedeviling the nation.
In his epistle, Mr Obasanjo also called for a national dialogue where ethnic groups can be open about their grievances that have led to the insecurity in the country.
In reaction, the National Secretary of the Miyetti Allah, Alhassan Saleh, called for the arrest of the former Nigerian leader saying any group which has grievances against the Nigerian State should approach the National Assembly.
Mr Saleh also said the Fulani extraction, which are often accused of spearheading insecurity, should not be blamed for unabated criminal activities.
“The fact that there is insecurity, I don’t think the Fulani are responsible for it. The narrative that we are responsible for the insecurity is even the problem we have with the Nigerian state,” spokesman of the herders told Punch Newspaper.
“When any crime happens, even before there is an investigation, people rush to the press and start accusing Fulani herdsmen. Herdsmen are supposed to be carrying herds of cows but if somebody is a criminal or an armed robber, he should be treated as such.
“We have a National Assembly. Whatever they have, they should send it to the National Assembly. What is the function of the National Assembly? People lost power and don’t want to agree that in a democracy, you may be in power and another time, you won’t be in power.
“If we have confidence in those we elected, I think whatever issue they have, they can channel it to the National Assembly. They want another talk shop probably to come and reposition themselves and their cronies into another jamboree,” he added.
Saleh who cited the national conference convened during the administration of former president, Goodluck Jonathan, as case study, described Obasanjo as an agent of destabilisation.
“The earlier they get him (Obasanjo) arrested and dealt with, according to the laws of the land, the better. He doesn’t mean well for the country. We just elected a new government; we have a National Assembly that was just inaugurated. Nobody needs any conference, except they are pushing for something else.”
Miyetti Allah also attacked Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka for expressing similar opinion like Obasanjo.
“The unfortunate thing is that intellectuals like Wole Soyinka are also joining the bandwagon of these discredited politicians. But our worry is that they seem to associate every crime that happens now to the Fulani, simply because the President is a Fulani man.
“We are just waiting and watching carefully because we are not demanding too much from the Nigerian state. All we are saying is give us space to graze our animals. That is not difficult,” he said.
