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| Miyetti Allah National President, Bello Abdullahi Bodejo |
He said the news report was fabricated by the enemies of the Fulani ethnic group with the aim of tarnishing their image.
He therefore called on Nigerians to disregard it.
He said, "My attention has been drawn to a news report making rounds in the social media to the effect that as National President of Miyetti Allah I made claims that Nigeria is a Fulbe country and that the Fulbe can enter anywhere without permission. And that the Fulbe are also raising 100,000 militiamen to enforce their will on every community in this country.
"I want to state clearly and unequivocally that this news report is a fabricated lie.
"It is actually the enemies of the Fulbe people that are at it again, as always, concocting such insidious and malicious falsehood against our people for their diabolical agenda against the Nigerian state."
The Miyetti Allah chieftain had claimed that Nigeria belongs to Fulani and they will rule the country forever.
He revealed that his organisation had concluded arrangements to flag-off its own security outfit with about 5,000 to 100,000 vigilantes to be deployed across all the states of the country.
In an interview with THE SUN, Bodejo said that Fulani don’t need permission from anyone to settle in any land of their choice because Nigeria belongs to them and they founded it.
It is reported that herdsmen have forcefully taken over 350 lands in the Southeast, what is your reaction?
In the first place, who owns the land? I don’t know any place in any local government in Nigeria, where Fulani have displaced people and settle.
They mean farmlands and bushes, not residential areas, where the herdsmen allegedly scare away the owners of the land
Some people are adorning Fulani attire to cause trouble in some places. Nobody has gone to those places to see if they are real Fulani. We have called our members, and they said they were not dragging land with anybody. The commissioner of police is there, the army is there.
Those areas the Fulani live, the traditional ruler should make a Fulani chief and bring him into his cabinet, for peaceful coexistence, it is a very simple matter.
If as they claimed that their cattle were destroying crops, what is the work of the commissioner of police, he should go and arrest them and charge them to court.
By the way, who has the land they claimed that the herdsmen have settled? I, Bello Abdullahi Bodejo, if I decide to go inside bush and settle in any community, I won’t ask for anybody’s permission and be doing my activities, but I won’t offend anybody.
If the herdsmen decide to go and settle inside the bush, they won’t ask for anybody’s permission; the only thing they can see are the grass cutters and other bush meat, do you say they should take permission from these animals before they settle there?
It is only Fulani that can go and stay inside any bush they like. They have right to go and settle in any bush in this country without asking anybody for permission. It is not against the law in this country. Who would they go to take permission from, is it the animals in the bush? You see from the village to the bush they are claiming is theirs maybe over 100 kilometers. How can herdsmen go and settle in a bush that is over 100 kilometers away from where the people live and you expect them to go and take permission from anybody. Who owns the land?
I don’t see any place where people will try and drive away the Fulani; they have right in this country. They produced Nigeria. They produced the first prime minister. If they produced the first president, another president, another president and so on, are they not the owner of the country? Fulani are ruling Nigeria and they must continue to rule the country forever. That is the truth.