National President of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Bello Abdullahi Bodejo, has once again reminded Nigerians and particularly, the Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, that the whole Nigerian land belongs to the Fulani, and that no power anywhere can force then out of any forest in the country.
Bodejo who made the statement in an interview with Daily Sun, said the Fulani has been in the forest long before Akeredolu was born, adding the governor therefore, has no power to give them any ultimatum, which he said is null and void even if issued.
He also said Governor Akeredolu is "supposed to accommodate more Fulani in the state and not to drive them out." because "People, including Fulani voted for him to be the governor."
He said, "Fulani have been in the forests he is talking about even before he was born; they have been there for over 250 years. No matter how dangerous a forest may be, Fulani would go and settle there.
After staying there for a long time and their cow dung turns the place fertile, people would begin to come there to farm and to settle and from then, they begin to make claims that our cattle were destroying their farms."
He vowed to take legal action against the governor, however, insisted that no one can forced them out of the forest.
"We are suing the governor and seeking an injunction restraining him and others from carrying out his threat. But even at that, nobody, no power can send the herdsmen out of Ondo State," he said.
Speaking further on the ultimatum given by the governor, he said, "No any herdsman will obey the governor; the herdsmen will not step an inch out of Ondo forests; they are going nowhere.
We won’t obey the governor; it is only the constitution of Nigeria that we obey. We have been in that area before he was born, how can he just grow up and ask us to leave; no Fulani will leave that place. What are his reasons for the quit notice?
He alleged that it is the herdsmen that are kidnapping and robbing people and they operate from the forests."
On whether they would consider leaving should the environment become hostile to them, he replied, "The first thing is that nothing will make us take such decision.
If you apply force and out of hundred Fulani, you kill 95 of them, the remaining five will go back there and continue with their grazing. They have been there for up to 250 years. They have been there before the state was even created.
"All the lands in this country belong to the Fulani, but we don’t have any business to do with land if it doesn’t have areas for grazing; if the land doesn’t have cow food, we won’t have any business with it. We don’t sell land, we don’t farm.
What we consider is the areas that have cow food. If the place is good for grazing, we don’t need anybody’s permission to go there.
"Nigerians should know that our association, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore is not backing anybody who is a kidnapper, armed robber, and we are calling for law enforcement agents to go after all these criminals and deal decisively with them.
"The criminality all over the country is the more reason we want to fully implement our vigilante system; we want to enter all the forests in this country to check these bandits in the forests that are causing these problems and denting the good image of Fulani ethnic group.
We can’t wait any longer; we are sending our vigilantes into the forests to fish out these criminals – those intimidating the herdsmen and stealing their cows and secondly, these bandits causing problems in this country. It is only the Fulani that can enter any forest and chase out these bandits."
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