Southwest is our Home, Miyetti Allah Insists

Fulani herdsmen under
the aegis of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore have vowed to resist any eviction from the South-West, citing their rights as enshrined in the Nigerian constitution to live wherever they desire.

The National Secretary of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Mr Alhassan Saleh, made the assertion earlier on against a backdrop of the eviction notices issued to criminal herdsmen by some South-West groups and personalities.

Miyetti Allah has also vowed to avenge the alleged attacks on and loss of herdsmen and their cattle, saying it would never tolerate any act of injustice on herders.

The secretary explained that it was wrong to drive herders out of any part of Nigeria and that even if there were criminals among them, it was the function of the government’s security forces to identify and arrest them.

He said the eviction of herdsmen from the southern region of the country was a dangerous precedent and that the best way to solve the herders-farmers crisis was for state governments to provide ranches and grazing routes for the herders and their animals as a solution to the continuous crisis.

Meanwhile, the Seriki Fulani in Osun State, Alhaji Babatunde Ibrahim, told newsmen that members of the Fulani community in the state were making efforts to identify and evict criminal herdsmen.
Ibrahim, however, said no Fulani herder was planning to relocate to the North because the state was their home.

He also said proper identification of herders living in the state remained the only way to prevent violent herdsmen from invading the state.