The umbrella body of herdsmen in the country has warned against killing of its members and the consequences thereof.
Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore in an interview with Punch Newspapers cautioned that they will retaliate if any of its member is killed not minding the circumstances.
Saleh Alhassan, national secretary of the group also told the national daily that no one, regardless of his position in the society, has the power to chase out herders from any part of the country.
“Nobody has the right (to evict herdsmen). If you say you are going to evict us, we will resist eviction. We have been surviving in harsh environments. If we do not resist, we will be wiped out of the planet. If you kill a herder, don’t go and sleep, we will revisit you, and it’s not because we hate your tribe. People attack herders, and in one way or the other, herders have found a way to retaliate,” Alhassan said.
He said contrary to speculations in some quarters that violent herdsmen are foreigners, those coming into the country through the land borders are Nigerians of Fulani extraction who are returning home after being chased away from abroad.
“All those who travelled to the Benin Republic and others are coming back home. All those saying they will bar foreign herders from entering Nigeria are just playing to the gallery because if they are aware of the ECOWAS Protocols, they would know they cannot chase them away. That is why the position of the Bauchi State Governor is the true position. You have no right to evict anybody from any part of the country.
“Our number has increased recently because of the tension in Ghana and Benin Republics. The ones in Benin Republic have integrated with the Yoruba in such a way that they speak the language. They were initially living in the South-West, and they are coming back.
“They expected a reaction from us, maybe by way of attacking other ethnic nationalities. But that is wrong because the herders they are attacking are the innocent herders. Are the criminals representing anybody? They are doing their criminal enterprise. Our own pain is that the people who are supposed to know are pretending as if they don’t know,” the Miyetti Allah helmsman added.
Meanwhile, a federal former lawmaker, Shehu Sani has advised Northern state governors to share herders returning home the way federal allocations are shared.
