The Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore has reacted to a statement by the Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, alleging he was attacked by suspected herdsmen on Saturday at Tyomu community in Makurdi Local Government Area of the state.
Ortom had been at the forefront of the fight against killer herdsmen in Benue State, claiming that they had been killing his people in order to take over their ancestral lands.
Abdullahi Bello Bodejo, President of the Miyetti Allah Association, addressing a press conference in Abuja on Thursday.
Ortom immediately blamed the leadership of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore and called for their arrest.
The governor also said he ran for close to two kilometres to escape after about 15 herdsmen attacked him on his farm at Tyo-Mu community.
He was quoted as saying, “You know today is Saturday and it is normal as a farmer, I usually go to my farm on Saturdays.
“So I went to my farm along Gboko Road and while trekking out of the farm; on our way back, we started hearing gunshots and we saw people a little afar who were dressed in black and from experience, we realised that these were the criminal militia.
“I did not want to take things for granted because, a few days ago, the media were awash with a statement from Miyetti Allah, which had met in Yola, the same place they met in 2016, where they declared that they will take over Nigeria and that every other person is a slave and that was when they started infiltrating the entire country. They came out with a statement singling me out as the only person who is creating a problem for the entire Fulani race.
“And behind the scenes, I also heard that in the meeting, I was targeted for elimination, this was the information I got. That they will go after me either in my home, farm or wherever they could get me. This is not the first time, I got an intelligence report that these people said that they were going to kill my security aides and capture me alive and gradually killing me.
“But like I always say, my life is in the hands of God, not in the hands of any Fulani man or anybody whatsoever. And I remain firm, I will fight for the truth, equity and fairness till when God permits that I will not be here again, then I will go.”
But reacting in an interview with DailyTrust, the National President of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Abdullahi Bello Bodejo, said Ortom was lying.
He accused the Benue governor of keeping malice against the group because they sued him over the controversial anti-grazing law he enacted in Benue.
Bodejo said: “There was nothing secret about the conference we held in Yola. We called for unity and sensitised Fulani on the need for peaceful coexistence with other people. Ortom lied, we don’t know anything about the said attack.
“Ortom hates Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore ever since we took him to court. We are still in court with him. If he claims we said something in Yola; yes, we called on him to review the law because Fulani herdsmen are losing their cattle.
“Journalists (in Yola) asked me about the Benue anti-grazing law; I explained that the law was discriminatory. The Fulani are being fined unjustly. We advised him to review the law because the Fulani are forced to sell their cows to pay the fine.”
