The Sultan of Sokoto Sa’ad Abubakar III claims kidnappers in the country are mostly from the Fulani extraction.
Mr Abubakar who stated this yesterday at a meeting in Abuja with the leaders of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN) did not disclose how he arrived at the statistics but discouraged the criminalization of an ethnic group on account of a few bad elements in its fold.
The eviction orders handed to herdsmen residing in the South-West geo-political zone necessited the meeting where the revered religious leader said although seven in every ten kidnappers arrested are Fulani mostly from neighboring countries, their collaborators cut across other tribes.
Herders are accused of being arrowheads of insecurity, particularly kidnapping among other criminal activities. Ondo State government which issued a seven-day vacation order said testimonials from kidnap victims indicted the pastoralists as suspects.
“I am a Fulani and I am not a bad man. I am also not a criminal,” Abubakar who was quoted by The Nation explained.
“Those who engage in one form of crime or another are across the country. It is not proper to refer to any tribe by the crime perpetrated by individuals.
“For example when they collected N10m, where and how do you spend this amount in the bush? The money is back in the city.
“I have told the Inspector General of Police to check this. We are not saying Fulani are not part of the kidnappings as mentioned by the Secretary of Miyetti Allah.
“Seven to eight kidnappers arrested are Fulani, but that doesn’t mean every Fulani is a criminal. No, they are not.
“We must put hands together to bring an end to this problem. We are going to approach the President to talk to our West African neighbours where we have Fulani like Senegal, Niger Republic Guinea and Mali, to help us, because most of these bandits cross from neighbouring countries to conduct their criminal acts and run back,” he added.
