Don’t twist it, Fulanis are the ones killing other Nigerians — Afenifere tells Miyetti Allah

Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has replied the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) over comments that the Fulani ethnic nationality has suffered greater hate and blanket condemnation from most of the other tribes in Nigeria.

Chairman of MACBAN in the South-East, Alhaji Gidado Siddiki, had said Fulani cattle herders were highly misunderstood and poorly treated.

This, he said while reacting to the ban on open grazing by southern governors.

According to him, the rising state of insecurity in Nigeria had increasingly fanned the embers of suspicion among the different ethnic nationalities in the country.

However, the Afenifere stated that MACBAN was only playing a victim card and had always been using the tactics whenever killer-herdsmen were asked to leave the South-West.

Speaking with Sahara Reporters on Friday, elder statesman and acting leader of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, said the South-West governors have only made the decision to ensure the safety of their people and not to punish any ethnic group.

He said Yoruba people had not asked Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote or other well-meaning Northerners to leave the South-West.

Adebanjo also noted that MACBAN was only trying to change the narrative.

”Their style is to change the narrative. Are Yorubas and Igbos the ones that are raping or kidnapping, are they the ones who take the farmlands of farmers in the South or in the Middle-Belt, killing them and sending them away and taking their land?

“Are Yorubas and Igbos the ones who went to Agatu, Makurdi to kill the people there? Are Yorubas or Igbos the ones involved in the massacre at Southern Kaduna in 2018, on Christmas Eve?

“They are just trying to change the narrative, just like when we say the herders should go, they also say the Yorubas and Igbos too should leave the North and I ask them, have we asked Dangote to go? Is Dangote not Fulani?

“Are there any Yorubas or Igbos in the North raping, kidnapping and killing people? If there are, send them away. That is the issue. It is an attempt to change the narrative and he thinks he is talking to a fool, the world knows better.

“Each time MACBAN talks, there’s no mention of those that had been victims of these killer-herders. They don’t talk of the people that have been killed in the South or those that have been kidnapped. They don’t talk of the money they have collected from innocent people before they released them. They don’t talk of the molestation. They went to Makurdi and told Ortom that they are the owners of his land and that they are coming back again.

“The Governor of Benue State went to the President at that time, he told them I know those who are killing my people, what did (President Muhammadu) Buhari say?”