The Sultan of Sokoto, Mohammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, has said he will never urge the Fulani to pick up arms to kill any Nigerian.
Abubakar stated this on Monday, while reacting to reports which claimed he made inciting comments, concerning the recent killing of some Fulanis in Numan, Adamawa state.
Represented by Muhammadu Sanusi II, the Emir of Kano, he was quoted to have said that “what happened in Numan would not go unpunished” and warned against misconstruing the “patience (of the Fulanis) for weakness”.
But speaking on Monday at the meeting of northern traditional rulers’ council alongside some southern leaders in Kaduna, the Sultan said: “As a Fulani leader, I am the leader of Fulanis in this country and in the West African sub-region. I live with so many people and I know their problems and I will never call on any Fulani to pick up arms to kill anybody.
“I have said it so many times at so many fora, those people picking up arms killing people are criminals and whoever you are, whether you are Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba or Fulani, you have no right to take up arms and kill anybody.
“If you see such thing happening then there must be a failure of government , but if government wakes up to their responsibility, some of these things will not happen.
“We keep on calling on everyone to please maintain peace and allow the constituted authority to take up this issues and we will continue to put pressure on them, until they continue to find solution to this dastardly act.”
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