Miyetti Allah: We Are Suprised That Shehu Is Talking Like Someone on Drugs – Afenifere
- Afenifere describes comparison with Miyetti Allah as unfair.
- Says FG’sdecision to meet with them shows the kind of people they are.
The pan Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere has berated the presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, for likening the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria to their groups.
Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity had said the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria should not be criminalised because the Fulani group was in the same league with Afenifere and Ohanaeze Ndigbo when he featured on a breakfast show on Channels TV yesterday.
Defending the meeting between the acting Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, and the leadership of the Miyetti Allah, Shehu said that the government needed the cooperation of Miyetti Allah to help in tackling weapons proliferation as the security situation in the country worsened.
“It is a mistake to say the Nigerian government is talking to bandits. The Miyetti Allah group is like the Ohanaeze and Afenifere. It is a socio-cultural group. There are criminals within the Yoruba race and you cannot say because of that Afenifere is a group of criminals.
“The Nigerian government is speaking with the leadership of the Fulani herders association, Miyetti Allah.”
Shehu had urged Nigerians not to politicise the meeting as all stakeholders had a role to play in ensuring that the nation remained safe.
Reacting to the statement, the Afenifere spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, said the group could not be likened to the Miyetti Allah which he said was responsible for killings and bloodshed across the country.
While arguing that the Federal Government’s decision to meet with the Miyetti Allah leadership over the rising violence and criminality across the country highlighted the type of people that made up the group, Odumakin said Afefnifere is surprised that Shehu was talking like someone under the influence of drugs.
“In Afenifere, we don’t kill, we don’t abduct people. How can you compare us to a group of people who have been killing in Enugu, Benue, Ogun and other states?
“Why did the government meet Miyetti Allah as part of plans to stop banditry and kidnapping in the country? Why didn’t they meet Afenifere? We reject that categorisation. For anyone to compare us to a group of Fulani herdsmen which had been described by the global terror index as the fourth deadliest terrorist group in the world is most unfair and very unfortunate,” he said.
