The spokesman for the group that makes up of Mdgzou U Tiv, Idoma National Forum, and Omi’Ngede, Chief Edward Ujege reiterated the call while reacting to the recent outburst of the group insisting to resist the anti-open grazing law enacted by the state.
The socio-cultural group decried the insistence of the leaders of Miyeiti Allah to work against the law even when the National Economic Council headed by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo had endorsed ranching and banned open grazing in some parts of the states of the country including Benue.
The group said that the recent outburst of the leaders of Miyeiti Allah Kautal Hore was tantamount to rubbish the NEC decision adding that it has shown clearly that some powerful people in government were the one behind the group
Ujege in the statement said that the leaders of Miyetti Allah should not continue to use the enactment of the anti-open grazing law in Benue State as an excuse to perpetrate their terrorist acts of killing defenceless farmers and other members of the society in Benue State.
“The killings by Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria are not restricted to Benue State where the anti-open grazing law has been enacted. The Fulani killings have cut across Nasarawa, Taraba, Adamawa, Kogi, Plateau, Kaduna, Edo, Ondo, Enugu and other states where the law does not exist.
“It must also be noted that the killings in Benue State particularly, started as far back as 2010 before the anti-open grazing law was enacted by the Benue State House of Assembly late last year.”
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The socio-cultural group said that the Miyeiti Allah Kautal Hore leaders were wrong to have assumed that the law was made by Governor Samuel Ortom, saying, ‘ It is a law of the people of Benue state through their democratically elected representatives as a last resort in their futile efforts to find peace and ensure security of lives and property in the state.’
” It is unfortunate that the leaders of Myetti Allah have deliberately chosen to use Ortom as a scapegoat in their ethnic cleansing agenda in Benue state. For, as his public service record would show, Ortom is an extremely peaceful and God-fearing Governor who is only doing the will of his own people.”
While puncturing the argument by the group that the law had stultified their culture, movement or economic interests, Ujege said that a good number of herders, including Fulanis, Hausas and other groups with good intentions, are still resident peacefully in Benue state.
The group expressed deep concern of why Buhari administration’s had refused to declare the killer Fulani herdsmen as terrorists and prosecute the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore Fulani Socio-Cultural Association despite the genocide on the state since new year day.
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He said that their concern stems from the fact that the Kautal Hore had invited all Fulani from around West and Central Africa to converge on Benue State and use all means available to visit mayhem on Benue people which he said had led to killings of hundreds of people in the state.
“Let it be known that the killings are still on-going, at an average of two persons per day, although most of these killings are not being reported
“We categorically state that the position of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore Fulani Association as contained in their communiqué after an emergency meeting in Kaduna, clearly constitutes the height of lawlessness, impunity and terrorism, which must not be condoned by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
” The same Constitution of Nigeria they are quoting also provides that every state in the country has the right to enact laws for the good governance of her people. Miyetti Allah has no right whatsoever to threaten the implementation of the anti-open grazing and provision of ranches law in Benue State.
“We must not forget nor shy away from expressing our fears about the impression being created, latent or apparent, that the Miyetti Allah has become the mouthpiece of the Federal Government. How else do we explain the body language of the government through statements by its highly placed officials including the Chief of Army Staff, Inspector-General of Police, Minister of Defence, and even, President Muhammadu Buhari himself, in the face of the Fulani killings in Benue state?
We and, indeed, other concerned Nigerians, are yet to come to terms with the Inspector-General’s false and misleading assertion that the killings in Benue were as a result of communal clashes. What about the declaration by the Defence Minister that the anti-open grazing law in Benue was the cause of the Fulani killings? Why would the Chief of Army Staff advice Governor Ortom to review the anti-open grazing law to make for harmonious living by the various groups in the state? Then, President Buhari, telling the world during his recent visit to America that those responsible for the killings in the Benue and other parts of the Middle Belt were Libyans who were armed by the late Gadhafi?” The group lamented.
and then