Bello Abdullahi Bodejo who is the National President of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, has declared that the pictures of herdsmen bearing guns and other weapons in the social media are usually photoshopped. In his opinion, Fulani herders are mostly uneducated and consequently have no skills to operate guns.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the Miyetti Allah leader noted:
“The people alleging this just want to create problems in Nigeria.
A Fulani who is not educated; didn’t go to school, how will he know how to operate gun? The people carrying guns are the Amotekun and other vigilantes being created here and there.
Herdsmen are not carrying any guns; they are just rearing their cows with their sticks.”
He called on Christian pastors to join Sheikh Abubakar Ahmad Gumi, the famous Islamic cleric, in the forest to negotiate with bandits, instead of criticizing the cleric. He also claimed that Fulani herdsmen were the first to produce national revenue for Nigeria before the discovery of oil in the Niger Delta.
He also spoke on the general insecurity bedeviling the country and other burning national issues. Excerpts:
Why do herdsmen carry guns? This is one question still waiting for an answer
Who gave the herdsmen guns?
The herdsmen you see in the social media carrying guns were photoshopped, and they are not even Nigerian herdsmen.
I have many cows and my boys are rearing them. None of them has a gun; nobody is carrying gun. The people alleging this just want to create problems in Nigeria. A Fulani who is not educated, didn’t go to school, how will he know how to operate guns? The people carrying guns are the Amotekun and other vigilantes being created here and there, yet everybody sees them and keeps quiet.
Herdsmen are not carrying any guns; they are just rearing their cows with their sticks. But at any place he encounters trouble, he will stand there and confront and deal with the trouble. Whether in the bush or any other place he is threatened or killed, you won’t kill him and get away with the crime. It is the Fulani culture.
These are people without addresses; they are mobile. Today, you see them in Anambra, tomorrow in Adamawa, the other time in Sokoto and they move on to another area where there is pasture. Who can trek from Ebonyi to Maiduguri? It is only the Fulani man. When you see such a person, don’t you know that there is a special grace God gave to him? Trying to deny Fulani where they eke out their living with in this country is not right.
