•Those opposed to outfit are Fulani enemies
National President of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Alhaji Abdullahi Bodejo has said his controversial Nomadic Vigilance group was formed to end criminalities.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, Bodejo said the outfit would be set up in the 36 states of the federation, noting that the Federal Capital Territory would be next in line. He, however said he would scrap the outfit once the government opposes it.
Now that you have launched the Miyetti Allah Vigilante in Nasarawa State, as you vowed since last year. What is the next line of action?
We launched the Nomadic Vigilante with over 1000 personnel. Why we came up with that name is for farmers who are not necessarily Fulani to join because they also move from place to place looking for land to farm. We didn’t make it only for the Fulani, if we had, it would be Fulani Vigilante.
We have started it in Nasarawa, and I promise that in less than six months from now insecurity will be a thing of the past in that state. This is so because the Fulani people are the victims of these kidnappings, cattle rustling. The Fulani have the cattle; it is their cattle that are being rustled. We are going to collaborate with the Nigeria Army, the police and other relevant security organisations.
Before, nobody could separate the real Fulani and the bandits, but now that we put Fulani in this Nomadic Vigilante, if the army wants to go inside bushes or forests that they didn’t know the terrain, this vigilance group would help them to go there and fish out criminals. Like I said, it is not only for the Fulani. If you are a farmer who moves from one place to the other to farm, you are a nomad, and you are qualified to belong if you want. You come, we screen you like others and you enter. The reason we are not calling it Fulani vigilante or Miyetti Allah vigilante is that we don’t want it to have ethnic or religious undertone. We set it with pure heart.
But some communities in Nasarawa State are already kicking against it and telling the governor that they don’t want it?
If you say you don’t want the Nomadic Vigilante, what then do you want? Do you want the farmers – herders’ crisis to continue? You want kidnapping to continue; you want banditry to continue? You want insecurity to continue? Because some people have already damaged the name and the image of the Fulani; for any kidnapping, they would be pointing in the direction of the race. If you arrest kidnappers, you can see that there may be only one Fulani, who they are using as their informants and when they there share the ransom, they may give him N50, 000,while the others go home with millions. Two days after the takeoff, the Nomadic Vigilantes have arrested some kidnappers and handed them over to the police. They have gone inside bushes to rescue kidnapped people who have been with their captors for some weeks, and also arrested the abductors. If the army or police or other security agencies go to the bush to comb for kidnappers, any Fulani they see in the bush, they pick him up as a suspect and bring him to the police station and start punishing him when probably he is innocent. All these communities in Nasarawa that are protesting have their own vigilante groups who are just after the Fulani. These vigilante groups killed about 17 people in the state.
When are you going to other states to set up the same Nomadic Vigilante?
Before the fifth of February, we would have tidied up everything about Nasarawa State and then move to probably, FCT Abuja because of the rising cases of kidnapping and other criminalities. I want to collaborate with all the governors in Nigeria, the police and the army in those states, starting with Kaduna, Bauchi, Zamfara, Kebbi and Taraba. Army has been around to stop the insecurity but it has not made much progress. I want to call all the Fulani leaders in various states for a meeting and discuss how we can end this banditry in order to restore the good name of the Fulani. Any person who is kicking against the Nomadic Vigilante as a way of fighting insecurity in order to bring back the good name of Fulani that has been tarnished over the years, is our number one enemy.
If you are not, why are you kicking against the setting up of a vigilante that wants to go inside bushes to bring out the criminals that are tarnishing our name? What then do you want? What is your interest? We are just collaborating with the security agencies to help them reach where they couldn’t reach to smoke out these criminals.
Fulani know themselves; they have their own talents unlike other tribes. No matter how they look, they know themselves. I want people to see how its operation is going on in Nasarawa, and then all other governors would see the need to collaborate with us in tackling insecurity. We want the Inspector General of Police to give us backing and see how peaceful the country would be. We Fulani have something that is more powerful than AK47; it is more than any weapon in this world.
What is that?
It is something that is inside a Fulani. It is called Folako. We want to use it in this fight against banditry and kidnapping. We want to use it to end all these security problems in Nigeria. Anything that concerns the Fulani – if you are a bandit, nomad, farmer, king or whatever, we respect Folako. We have Fulani in Ghana, Gambia, etc, we are different, but it is only Folako that we all respect.
When will they start bearing arms because you cannot catch armed kidnappers, bandits with bare hands?
Many vigilantes across the country carry double barrel guns, dane guns. If the constitution of Nigeria allows us to carry guns, then we’ll do it carefully and approach the security agencies on how to go about it.
How are you getting the money to fund the outfit? They all wore uniforms on the day it was unveiled to the public?
We contributed individually to get the uniforms. No governor, no outside person donated money to us. We are contributing money for it. All those people wearing the uniform, they made it for themselves and got their footwear. What we did was to show them the colour of the uniform, and they went to get them. The process of their recruitment was thorough. Each of them passed through screening; they provided their guarantors who are their leaders in the local governments they reside in. We gave them forms for them to fill and their guarantors who must have known them would also sign.
Are they being paid salaries?
Nobody is paying them salaries for now. However, we can as time goes on implore the state governors of where the Nomadic Vigilante is providing service to give them stipends as they are doing to other quasi security outfits. We have started in Nasarawa and they are very enthusiastic about the job. They know their Police Area Commander and their Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in the area they are posted. The Area Commander knows their number in his area; likewise, the DPO knows their number in his division. If the police want to go for an operation inside a bush, they are sure of people who may lead and direct them in the bush. Some people who are trying to sabotage this outfit are saying that we would not go and arrest their brothers, but they know that Fulani are major victims in these kidnapping and banditry issues. That is why I tell people that Fulani are suffering a lot in this country. While rearing their cattle the kidnappers come after them, abduct them and rustle their cows.
Many people are saying this outfit is part of the plan for the Fulani to take over people’s ancestral lands. What do you say to this?
Fulani people don’t have any business claiming land. No matter how beautiful the land is, if you don’t have grazing place in that area, they would move and leave you with your land. There is nothing that concerns him with land. That is why you see a Fulani man, he has lived in a place for over 100 years and somebody who is just 30 years old would come and ask him to leave because it is not his land, and he would carry his family and leave the place. It is only a Fulani man that faces such in Nigeria. Nigerians are not thinking, they bring politics into everything.
I, Abdullahi Bello Bodejo, I didn’t form this vigilance outfit based on politics. I formed it because Fulani’s name has been dragged in the mud; tarnished and rubbished. If you are a Fulani and you are travelling, people in the same vehicle with you will be seeing you as a kidnapper or a criminal. Every tribe has criminals and bad people among them, but we have been profiled. It is against this that we formed this to sanitise the country of criminality so that our image will be restored
The way many people, organisations, ethnic groups and others are kicking against it, don’t you think that the government may stop it?
If now, I receive a call from the Federal Government or the state governor that they don’t want the Nomadic Vigilante, I will immediately summon all of them and ask them to remove their uniforms and go back to their various endeavours and never to make reference or introduce themselves as members of the Nomadic Vigilante again. I don’t have any ulterior motive for setting it. My interest is to use this outfit to help stop these people who are killing others in the country. If one Fulani commits a crime in an area, over 100 of his kinsmen would suffer it. The local vigilantes would move and kill everybody they see there, and there is no investigation.
So, if the government says they don’t want it, I will stop it. Nigeria is facing security challenges, and I decided to see how to help to halt it. I don’t see any problem with it. Instead of staying outside and criticise it, why not come inside and see how it operates? There are different types of vigilante groups – we have hunters group, professional hunters, VGN and others, but they are enjoying their peace and nobody is disturbing them. Why is everybody kicking against this group set up by a Fulani? It is not a hidden thing.
We have different kinds of vigilantes in Nigeria. Most communities have local vigilantes, but they are carrying out their operations and nobody is disturbing them. Why is ours different?
I want to know the reason. But I know nobody can come out to give the reason because of the hatred they have for the Fulani. They have a right in Nigeria too. They can carry out their activities so long as they are not breaking Nigeria law. If they allow this vigilante group, I promise you these crises you are seeing in Zamfara, Katsina and other states will come to an end.
Are you saying that if the Nomadic Vigilante stays, you would end banditry?
We can end it, not with weapons but with Folako, where you can call your brothers to talk to them and they will believe in you, they will obey you and do what you are supposed to do with them. But this will happen if the state government gives us support.
Do you intend to establish it in the South?
Yes. We are taking it everywhere. The only place we cannot take it is outside the boundary of Nigeria.