Friday, December 5, 2025 - The National Secretary of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore Fulani socio cultural association, Engr. Saleh Alhassan, said on Thursday, December 4, that the only situation resembling genocide in Nigeria is what he described as decades of violence against Fulani pastoralists. Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, he argued that pastoral communities have faced sustained killings, displacement and criminalization across several states for more than 25 years.
“If we must be honest in this country, if there is anything
close to genocide in Nigeria, it’s genocide against the Fulani pastoralists in
the last 25 years across the country, from Plateau to Benue to Zamfara to Kebbi
State. Pastoralists have been deliberately targeted, killed, displaced, and
some state governors even enacted laws that criminalized pastoralism,” he said.
Alhassan said current media narratives misrepresent the
reality of the conflict and insisted that Fulani communities have repeatedly
come under attack. “As an organization that has been campaigning for peace, we
are in support of all government efforts to ensure sustainable peace across the
country,” he said.
He criticized what he called “genocide town criers,”
accusing them of seeking international attention and foreign aid. He referenced
a bishop who took reports of violence in Benue to the United States. “What he
is looking for is foreign aid. He failed to contextualize the actual conflict,”
he said, questioning why domestic institutions such as the National Human
Rights Commission and the Senate were being bypassed.
He noted that the Senate had invited organizations to submit
memoranda on resolving the farmer herder crisis but said Miyetti Allah had not
been called to discuss its submission. Alhassan also alleged that attacks on
pastoralists had intensified following recent comments by former US President
Donald Trump. “In the last three weeks, pastoralists have been devastated in
Kebbi State. They have been attacked in Niger State, in Benue State. It is the
locals who attacked the citizens. Pastoralists were destroyed and not a single
word from the security agencies, not even the media,” he said.
He listed multiple recent cases in which he said herders
were attacked without response. “We have attacks on pastoralists in Kebbi State
no action was taken. Attacks on pastoralists in Niger State; no action was
taken. Attack on pastoralists in Benue State, Ohimini Local Government,
precisely, for crimes they have not committed,” he said. He argued that
pastoralists were frequently blamed without evidence. “If there are conflicts
in Benue, you accuse the pastoralist. After investigation, you will discover that
even the locals are responsible for it,” he said.
Alhassan called for a comprehensive security strategy that
identifies all perpetrators of violence but maintained that portraying herders
as widespread aggressors is inaccurate. “Yes, we can have some of the herders
involved in the conflict, but the way the conflict is being viewed as if the
pastoralists are out there to kill and destroy people, that is not the truth.
That is not the narrative,” he said.
His remarks come amid heightened insecurity across several
northern states, where banditry, kidnapping and farmer herder clashes continue
to disrupt daily life and economic activity. More than three hundred and fifty
people have been abducted in recent weeks, with at least seven killed. Major
incidents include mass kidnappings at schools in Kebbi and Niger, the abduction
of thirty eight worshippers from a church in Kwara and an attack on a church in
Kogi that led to the kidnapping of a pastor and his wife. A bride to be and her
bridesmaids were also seized in Sokoto, while a traditional ruler in Kwara and
six others narrowly escaped captivity after bandits allegedly demanded one
hundred and fifty million naira for his release.
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