National President of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Abdullahi Bello Bodejo has warned the South against using its security outfits to wipe out Fulani from the region, saying failure to heed will attract dire consequences.
Speaking in an interview with Daily Sun, Bodejo said Miyetti Allah knows who the actual targets are, when the Southwest and east decided to form their security outfits. He warned that Miyetti Allah will soon deploy its own vigilante across the country to resist attacks on its 'innocent' people.
Bodejo also made sure to remind Southern leaders that no one owns any part of the country as long as Nigeria still remains a united entity. He said Nigeria belongs to Nigerians, therefore they have the right to settle and graze in any part of the country.
Speaking on why Miyetti Allah was yet to launch its security outfit as initially planned, despite the Southwest and East having theirs, he said, "If you are setting up a security outfit or organisation of this nature, the Federal Government has to be involved.
"Our Miyetti Allah Vigilance Group is still in the process, and we are delaying it, believing that the Federal Government, the Inspector General of Police, the Grand Khadi can stop all these small vigilance groups...that are just killing Fulani anyhow and the Fulani in turn carry out reprisals.
"We believe that Nigeria is one and as a Nigerian, wherever you see yourself or stay, you are a citizen. So, we are delaying it to watch if the police can adequately protect our lives and property.
"The South-West has provided its own security, but they have forgotten that the police, the military, the DSS and other security agencies are there to protect them. To me, what they are doing is political and not security."
"If the Federal Government doesn’t stop Amotekun and the one coming from the South-East, we will have no option than to roll out our own with over 5, 000 personnel in all the 36 states of the federation and Abuja to protect our Fulani people in the forests and bushes, whose lives are in danger. You can see how the Amotekun are killing our people in the South-West, as if they are having an agenda," he added.
Speaking further he said, "If the Federal Government cannot stop them, then it is time to unveil our own under the umbrella of Miyetti Allah. Both Amotekun and the new one from the South-East, Ebube Agu, are targeted against the Fulani. Since it has come to this, our own security outfit is inevitable."
On whether Miyetti Allah's Vigilance Group will partner with Amotekun and Ebube Agu, since they share the same aim of flushing out bandits and other criminals in the forests, he replied, "We can’t join Miyetti Allah vigilantes with theirs because their agenda is to wipe out Fulani in those areas.
"We have seen it in the South-West. It is not about fighting bandits because the bandits are inside the forests. Let them go and face them, and not moving around the villages looking for Fulani persons to kill. We lost over 100 Fulani in the South-West, but we don’t have access to the media. Most people are not aware of this.
"After killing us, they are also damaging our names; they want people to see us in bad light as enemies to our hosts and enemies to other Nigerians. They say Fulani are bandits, Fulani are kidnapers, and Fulani are this and that. It is a lie.
"Our Miyetti Allah vigilantes can never join or partner with them. Even if we ask our members to join them, at the end of the day, they will come against them since their target is Fulani people.
"I’m warning them to be very careful and stop killing Fulani. According to them, it is their forests, but they should remember that any forest in Nigeria belongs to Nigerians. Any forest in Nigerians is for every Nigerian, it doesn’t belong to an individual or to a community.
"Let them be very careful, our innocent Fulani are all over in Nigeria and in the South-West, South-East and South- South; they are doing their activities, their culture in the bushes and forests.
"We are warning these regional security outfits not to go and kill innocent Fulani. Not every Fulani is a bandit. As every tribe has evil people, so also Fulani. When they were setting up these regional security outfits, they didn’t invite Miyetti Allah. So we will not be part of them," he concluded.