Miyetti Allah is the Fulani organisation comprising cattle breeders. The Benue State governor argues that bandits are their members
Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom, wants the federal government to include Miyetti Allah in its official gazette as a terrorist organization.
A Federal High Court had ruled that bandits are terrorists. The court also asked the Federal Government to make a publication on its official gazette and two national dailies to the effect that they are terrorists.
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But Ortom urged the Federal Government to declare Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN and Fulani Nationality Movement, FUNAM as terrorist organisations because bandits are their members.
Ortom said the bandits being mentioned were mostly from Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, MACBAN and FUNAM and so they should be designated as terrorist groups as well.
He was quoted by Sahara Reporters: “I want to commend the Federal Government for being bold to designate bandits as terrorists. But I call on the government to also include Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, MACBAN and Fulani Nationality Movement, FUNAM in the category of terrorists because those bandits are their members.”
Ortom urged the people of the state to support security agencies with useful intelligence in the fight against criminality and other forms of insecurity, pointing out that security is everyone’s business.
Early this year, Ortom said those who attacked his convoy, were members of the Miyetti Allah who, after a meeting in Yola, decided that he should be killed.
But reacting in an interview with DailyTrust, the National President of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Abdullahi Bello Bodejo, said Ortom was lying.
He accused the Benue governor of keeping malice against the group because they sued him over the controversial anti-grazing law he enacted in Benue.
Bodejo said: “There was nothing secret about the conference we held in Yola. We called for unity and sensitised Fulani on the need for peaceful coexistence with other people. Ortom lied, we don’t know anything about the said attack.
“Ortom hates Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore ever since we took him to court. We are still in court with him. If he claims we said something in Yola; yes, we called on him to review the law because Fulani herdsmen are losing their cattle.
“Journalists (in Yola) asked me about the Benue anti-grazing law; I explained that the law was discriminatory. The Fulani are being fined unjustly. We advised him to review the law because the Fulani are forced to sell their cows to pay the fine.”
