Miyetti Allah demands Obasanjo’s arrest

Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore has absolved Fulanis of blame in the spiking rate of insecurity in Nigeria while calling for the arrest of former president Olusegun Obasanjo.

Obasanjo wrote an open letter to the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday, urging him to act quickly and decisively against growing insecurity in the country.

Listing out the “four avoidable calamities” looming, Obasanjo said he was deeply worried about abandoning the country to the “hands of criminals” suspected to be Fulanis and insurgents.

“For over ten years, for four of which you have been the captain of the ship, Boko Haram has menacingly ravaged the land and in spite of government’s claim of victory over Boko Haram, the potency and the activities of Boko Haram, where they are active, remain undiminished, putting lie to government’s claim,” Obasanjo stated in the letter.

“Herdsmen/farmers crises and menace started with the government treating the issue with cuddling glove instead of a hammer,” he added.

The former president’s letter was released to the media a few days after Funke Olakunrin, daughter of Afenifere Chairman, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, was killed in Ondo State by gunmen.

Initial media reports blamed the killing on herdsmen. But the Nigerian government said highway robbers were responsible.

Apart from fatal clashes between farmer and herdsmen, especially the north-central states of Benue, Plateau, and Nasarawa. Bandit attacks in the states in Nigeria’s northwest region have led to the death of hundreds of people with many rendered homeless.

Nigeria is  as one of the five countries most impacted by terrorism in the 2018 Global Terrorism Index.

The country remains in the third position, which it occupied in the 2017 index.

The report notes that resurgence of the pastoral conflict in Nigeria over the past year, with Fulani extremists carrying out a number of high-profile attacks in the past six months, have impacted the Nigerian government’s fight against terrorism.

According to the report, ‘Boko Haram and Fulani extremists’ accounted for the largest percentage of the deaths. The Bachama extremist group was listed as the third most violent group.

United Nations Refugee Agency said in May that about 20,000 Nigerians majority of whom were women and children fled violence in the region to the neighbouring Nigeria Republic since April.

Miyetti Allah’s national secretary Alhasaan Saleh insisted the Fulani herdsmen cannot be blamed for rising crime rate.

“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,” he said.

Saleh said Obasanjo’s criticism of Buhari himself a Fulani is “diabolical” and not in good faith. He said the former Nigerian leader may want to destabilise the government and must be arrested.

“The earlier they get him (Obasanjo) arrested and dealt with, according to the laws of the land, the better,” Saleh said.

“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,” he added.