Herdsmen Are Not IPOB To Be Branded Terrorists – Miyetti Allah

The umbrella body for herdsmen in Nigeria, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, MACBAN, says herdsmen have not committed any offence to warrant branding them terrorists.

Speaking in an interview with the Sun on Saturday, Spokesman of MACBAN, Ismaila Ibrahim Ribeji, said unlike the Indigenous People of Biafra, herdsmen have not in any instance pushed for secession from Nigeria.

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Ribeji explained that IPOB went against the Nigerian constitution by trying to declare fro themselves an independent nation.

“I don’t know why Buhari declared IPOB terrorist, but I want everybody to understand that herdsmen are not terrorists,” he said.

“It is not all of them that are committing crimes. I’m not blind to say that some of the herdsmen are not involved in the killings, just like other tribes are also involved in the killings.

“It has to do with the constitution of the country. The Fulani are scattered not only in Nigeria, but also in Africa and other parts of the world, but if you consider the Nigerian state, I don’t think there is any state where the Fulani organised themselves and say they were going to fight the government and declare their own country.

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“But in some states, IPOB has said they were marginalised and they have organised themselves and said they were going to declare their own country.

“So the Biafra people were trying to declare for themselves an independent nation, why the Fulani people have not declared themselves an independent nation, not even a local government. If you look at the Nigeria constitution, anybody who tries to organise a coup plot or people looking for another country from the Nigeria state, there is a punishment.

“I don’t think that there is any part of the country that the Fulani have declared as their own state, but those people have carved their states, and said it is their own nation, and the government saw that it was a breach of the law of the nation and no group was supposed to behave in that way. The Fulani are not doing that.”

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