As the seven-day ultimatum Governor Rotimi
Akeredolu, SAN, issued herdsmen occupying Ondo
state forests expires tomorrow January 24, the
National President of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore,
Bello Abdullahi Bodejo has declared that nobody
has the power to remove Fulani herdsmen from
the state’s forests.

In an interview with The Sun, Bodejo claimed the
Fulani's own all the land in Nigeria. He said the
Fulanis have settled in the Ondo Forest reserves
for over 250 years and will not obey anybody to
leave the place.


Read excerpts from the interview below

Following allegations of kidnapping and robbery
carried out by Fulani herdsmen, Ondo State
government has given them seven-day
ultimatum to leave the forests in the state,
what is your reaction?

The Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu
doesn’t have any right to give such ultimatum to
our people. People, including Fulani voted for him
to be the governor; so he should be the governor
of everybody in the state.

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 maybe, 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.

We are suing the governor and seeking 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.


When are you going to court as the ultimatum
will soon expire?

We are making consultations with our legal team.
But before then, the governor and his people
should stop embarrassing our people in the
forests and all their businesses.

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

We are not in support of any form of
criminality- armed robbery, kidnapping, gun
running etc. These crimes are the reasons we
have the Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Army,
DSS, even Civil Defence to nab perpetrators and
there are courts everywhere to try them and if
found guilty, appropriate punishment meted out
to them. The governor is the chief security
officer of the state, there is no reason he
should single out one ethnic group for the
crimes committed in the state. He is supposed
to accommodate more Fulani in the state and
not to drive them out. Driving them out is not
the solution.

I have just concluded a meeting with my fellow
Fulani and we have found out that some people
will adorn Fulani attire to carry out various
crimes. How can Fulani man living in the forest
kidnap and ask people to pay ransom ranging
from N5 million to N10 million. What would he be
doing with that kind of money inside forest; if
you pay herdsmen N20 million, N10 million, N5
million in the forest, where would he carry the
money to and what will he be doing with such
money? Check the leaders of those criminals; let
the governors identify who the criminals are.
They are not Fulani. He just wants to use that
as an excuse to drive our people away from his
state. It is just giving a dog a bad name to hang
it; the herdsmen are not the kidnappers, let him
carry out proper investigations. Let him know
this, no any person in this country can push us
out of the forests.


If it becomes so hot and your people decide to
go, where would you be headed?

The first thing is that nothing will make us take
such decision. If you apply force and out of a
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.


Why can’t your people live with the people in the
community instead going to live inside forests?

We don’t need cities or towns. If you dash us
FCT Abuja or the city of Lagos, we won’t have
anything to do with it. We want a place where we
continue to practice our age long culture of
cattle rearing. We inherited it from our
forefathers and it will continue till the end of
the world. People are using propaganda to spoil
Fulani name, and desperate politicians are in the
forefront. Any governor that is drumming up on
the Fulani herdsmen issue, watch well, he has
issue or problem whether political or otherwise in
his state. It is possible that Akeredolu is
fighting a political battle, it may be 2023
election and that is why he is playing up this
Fulani herdsmen issue. It is the same with Benue
State governor, Ortom, when he was not
performing; he started to play up Fulani
herdsmen and farmers issue to draw support
from his people. For almost six years, he hasn’t
done any work in his state; he is talking about
herdsmen and his people.

Fulani can settle in any bush or forest they want
the moment they have cows. We agreed that our
children will pursue education and other
activities other people are doing in town, but
even me, I’m not comfortable staying in the
city, up till now my house is inside village.


Why is it that you would not take permission
from the owners of the forests before you
settle there?

Which forest, who has the forest? Any person
who thinks he owns any forest should be taken
to psychiatric hospital. Nobody owns any forest;
forests are for Nigerians. Fulani herdsmen have
the right to move into any forest and settle
there for their business. Why do farmers go and
cultivate thousands of hectare of land and fence
it, who gave them that land? Nobody is born
with a land in this country; people were just
moving from one place to another for
settlement. Fulani are settling in every
community, but we are not claiming land, we are
only interested on how our cows will have food to
eat.

Fulani can’t value 100 people’s lives like he can
value his one cow because since he was born, he
doesn’t have any business except that cow. The
cow is like his own brothers and sisters. If
anything happens to his cow, do you think he can
leave you? You have two or three storey
buildings and you park your cars , do you fold
your hands and watch somebody come to that
house carry your cars, your clothes, your wife,
destroy the buildings? You must fight. The
Fulani man values his cow just as you value your
brother and sister and you go all out to protect
them.

They love their cows beyond description, you
can’t separate them from their cows to go and
stay inside town or city. The cows have names.

The way you give your children names when they
were born is the same way they name their cows.

Even a person who has one thousand cows, those
cows have individual names and he knows them
by name; the cows have fathers, grandfathers
and grandchildren. What you have in human
beings – the ways names are given to people,
the same way Fulani give names to their cows.

We are cow lovers , that is why sometimes if you
kill their cows somewhere they go there to look
for justice, because they see like somebody has
killed their brothers; they must go to see who
did that and they won’t leave that person.


You said that only the Fulani will drive out the
bandits in the forests, why is it that they have
not done so in the forests of Zamfara, Katsina,
Sokoto and Niger?

Those bandits are not Fulani, but they are
damaging the name of Fulani and that is why
this our vigilantes will go into all the forests in
this country to chase out all the bandits.

Whatever atrocity that the bandits commit is
hanged on Fulani neck. These bandits are equally
killing herdsmen in their numbers in various
forests, but many people don’t understand this,
and the moment they see herdsmen in the bush,
they will tag them bandits or see them as
kidnappers. This is disturbing us as it is eroding
on our credibility; more so, useless people,
desperate politicians and social media warriors
have latched on this to poison everybody’s mind
against Fulani ethnic group.


Why not your vigilante clear Sambisa Forest,
which is so vast so that your people will settle
and halt these conflicts in many states?

Borno State governor Zulum said he will give
Fulani people Sambisa forest, we are waiting for
him and when the approval is given I will be the
first person to go and live there. We are also
waiting for the federal government to put
infrastructures there, and then we move in.

Herdsmen in this country are suffering too
much; as they move their cattle from one place
to the other, some people who want to steal
their cows will organise and even kill them,
especially these people they are giving uniform
in the name of vigilantes. These people are
causing confusion, you just pack some people,
give them uniforms to go and drive out Fulani
people in the forests.

Yes, the Amotekun; I’m calling on the federal
government to ban it. Since the federal
government has left Amotekun, that is the
reason we want to implement our own vigilante,
whose operation will be all over the country, not
only one state; we will operate everywhere you
find Fulani people in this country, we can go
there, enter the forests and chase the bandits
away. We can help the Nigeria Army, the Nigeria
Police Force, the federal government and
relevant security agencies to end this banditry
in the country. The Ondo State governor has a
secret agenda for asking our people to leave his
state, not the reasons he stated.

https://www.sunnewsonline.com/no-power-can-remove-us-from-ondo-forests-bodejo-miyetti-allah-leader/

Can you imagine! You are requesting Borno state governor to alocate sambisa forest to you when you have already made the claim that you and your generation own all the forest in Nigeria. You are also expecting basic amenities to be fitted in the forest before you can consider moving in. May i ask you: cattle rearing is it government business. I haven't seen a better comedian in.....

nawaoo

This is what happen when one take too much hard dryg

That's the kind of stupid rant they use to brainwash their almajiris to go on killing spree.
Okay, come and take the land naa. Generations before you mouthed the same rubbish and never achieved it, you will mouth it till you die and wont smell it and your children will continue chanting it till they die while we continue to thrive. The only thing you can do is what you and your forefathers have been bringing to the table before now; nuisance

Ana emenu. Kedu ihe madu ji isi ya buru.

lol

You're obviously mad Bodejo

Criminal terrorist

True story

This is the reason they force you people out of their lands - any forest you settle in is yours. Rubbish!

BigSarah:
True story

it is not

He is a comedian

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Noted

Mad man

.

Does these barbarians fully know the meaning of Federal Forest Reserves? I feel sorry for them because they have really pushed other ethnic groups to their elastic limit.It will not be funny when its starts.