Miyetti Allah has been accused of abducting and killing people, invading farmlands, and destroying crops. The group has, however, denied the allegations.
By Jeffrey Agbo
Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has said he does not understand the rationale behind the proscription of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
In an interview with Channels Television’s NewsNight, a pre-recorded programme which airs every Monday, Soyinka noted that the Miyetti Allah, an association of cattle breeders, ought to be proscribed too.
Miyetti Allah has been accused of abducting and killing people, invading farmlands, and destroying crops. The group has, however, denied the allegations.
Soyinka said, “Many people just either do not know history or do not understand the purpose of history. And then there’s a different group also who are very selective about history; they know how to distort or misuse history.
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“Take for instance when the incursion of the Fulani herdsmen began, and the Miyetti Allah. Their spokesman said, I think it was in Borno, we once ruled this place, and we can take back our land anytime we want. I remember that statement, I’ve never forgotten.”
“In the midst of the trauma of these people, somebody comes gloating and then citing selective portions of history. I said this person should be arrested and locked up, who says he wants to repeat his history of conquest – he’s admitting either knowledge, before or after, or support, anyway. Isn’t there anything like hate speech anymore? Why are you proscribing IPOB without proscribing Miyetti Allah?” Soyinka asked.
