Fulanis Like Niger Deltans Were Pushed To Criminality By Neglect And Poverty – Miyetti Allah
Baba-Othman Ngelzarma, the national president of the herders’ organization Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, or MACBAN, revealed on Saturday that Fulani people are similar to Niger Deltans in that they were driven into criminality by neglect and poverty.
According to the leader of MACBAN, pastoralists in the nation have never received help or assistance after losing their source of income due to insecurity.Ngelzarma, who said this in Abuja on Saturday, bemoaned the difficult situation pastoralists are in because they have all but lost their means of subsistence.
He stated: “In 2014, we were dealing with the farmer-herder conflict that allowed for small-scale livestock rustling.”A notorious criminal by the name of Gana started it in Benue.
After Gana introduced the pastoral youngsters to it, cattle rustling expanded and scaled up to an industrial level.”We began to experience a situation in which hundreds of cows went missing every day without a trace. For instance, 1,720 cows were mysteriously taken from a town in Niger State named Kachikoro in a single operation.”They changed into kidnapping when they became more sophisticated and started making money from cow rustling. Because it is simpler to abduct someone and demand cash be delivered to them in the forest than it is to take 50 to 100 cows, let them suffer in the jungles, and then slaughter them. That is how kidnapping evolved to be a successful industry in Nigeria today.”
While kidnapping was occurring, livestock were being rustled. Cattle rustlers had taken millions of naira. When cattle thieves are stealing your cows and you are helpless to stop them due to their sophistication. The security services also take no action against them.”The majority of families dealing with these issues have neither Islamic nor western schooling.
What do you think a family will become when all they invested in and relied on is taken away from them in a single day and they have no other skills than raising cows?
“They were quickly used by the powerful merchants as a means of initiation into criminality. Because of this, six out of ten kidnappers who were apprehended were Fulani.”They will claim that the victim paid N10 million, but that just N30,000 was provided to them when they are questioned.”Because the Fulani have no other options—no trade, no education, and many other things—those large merchants take advantage of their lack of resources and level of ignorance. They are comparable to a man drowning who is provided a two-edged sword and is forced to take it.”The Niger Deltans and Fulanis are identical. Neglect and poverty were what drove people in the Niger Delta into crime.”
In the majority of the country, pastoralists have never received help or assistance after losing their source of income due to any kind of instability.”Pastoralists have practically lost their source of income, and they have gone through hell and fire.Like Niger Deltans, he continued, “They deserve help, orientation, training, and education.”
