Chairman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, Kaduna State, Alhaji Ahmadu Suleiman, has declared that the Fulani man should be seen as a man of peace rather than a trouble maker. He stressed that they should be perceived as people who desire peace at all times in order to have their cattle grazed everywhere in the country.
He spoke exclusively to DAILY POST against the backdrop of the disquiet generated by the recent abduction of a former presidential candidate, Olu Falae, who maintained upon his release that his abductors were Fulani herdsmen, stressing that “They were Fulani, they spoke Hausa,” he disclosed that only two of the abductors could speak English. He said that they slashed him with their cutlasses and dragged him into the bush, threatening to kill him every half an hour.
The development led the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, to call an emergency meeting where it called for the stoppage of cattle rearing activities in all Southwestern states.
But Suleiman insisted that the typical Fulani man is very much concern on how to take care of his cattle, ensure their safety, good pasture and should not be given a bad name in order to hang him wherever he is seen in the country.
Also speaking with our correspondent, the Sardauna of Ladduga from Kachia Grazing Reserve, Dr Mohammed Abdulmalik Durunguwa asserted that the Fulani man should not be blamed for any uprising in any part of the country, noting that “concrete steps should be taken to fish out perpetrators of crimes in the country rather than pushing the blame on a particular group of people.”
He called for proper investigation in order to identify whoever or those responsible for the kidnap of Chief Falae, stressing that it is wrong for a group of people in the country to be seen as responsible for whatever happens in the society.
While condemning the kidnapping activities in the country, he observed that efforts by security agents to ensure a thorough investigation in order to bring to book those behind such illicit act will fail, “unless we disabuse the notion of pushing blames on a particular group of people in the country, the truth of what is going on in the society may not be told.”
“The issue of kidnapping has been a problem in the country for long and anybody or group of people to singlehandedly point to an ethnic group responsible for such act is unfair and l think steps should be taken to find out those behind such vices,” he lamented.
The Sardauna called on Nigerians to approach every issue in the country with caution so as to find out those behind the scene, adding that this could be done with a high sense of maturity in order to put an end to the various challenges confronting the country.
Recall that Afenifere had stated shortly after the kidnap of the former Secretary to the Federal Government that the activities of Fulani herdsmen in the Southwest have endangered the lives of the people, even as it called for the arrest of those behind the abduction of their chieftain.
The group, in a communiqué read by its spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, described the abduction as an insult on the Yoruba race, stressing that, “We demand that nomadic cattle rearing should be stopped in every state of Yoruba land.
“We believe now that after what has happened to chief Falae, people would not tolerate such thing in any part of Yoruba land.
“So while we await the arrest of the criminals, the cattle rearing should be stopped in Yoruba land,” it stated.
Σχόλια