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A youth organization, under the auspices of Berom Youth Defenders, BYD, has rejected the labeling of youths from the ethnic group as “Berom Militias” by the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN.
It gave the group a 72-hour ultimatum to retract the tag or risk a lawsuit.
The Plateau State chapter of MACBAN had, in a statement, while condemning alleged attacks on herders and poisoning of their cows, claimed the acts were being perpetrated by groups it referred to as “Berom Militias.”
The statement issued by the state MACBAN Chairman, Alhaji Ibrahim Yusuf Babayo, insisted that attacks on herders and poisoning of their cattle in rural communities especially in Barkin Ladi and Riyom Local Government Areas, were carried out by the local Berom militia gangs who also rustle the cattle during such attacks.
But in a counter-statement on Friday, Interim Chairman of BYD, Patrick Dauda, frowned at the tagging of Berom Youths as militias by MACBAN, stressing that there has been no proven evidence of any attack or poisoning of herders’ cattle by Berom youths in any community.
Dauda stated that MACBAN and other groups like the Gan Allah Fulani Development Association, GAFDAN, have been consistent with making such allegations whenever Fulani bandits plan to attack communities in the state but emphasized that such tactics would no longer work.
‘We, the Berom Youth Defenders, BYD, read with restrained anger a statement issued by the Plateau State Chairman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, Alhaji Ibrahim Yusuf Babayo, in which he alleged that Fulani herders were attacked and their cattle poisoned by Berom youths whom he labeled as militia gangs,” the BYD Chairman said in the statement.
Continuing, Dauda said:
“As defenders of our youths, we are compelled to respond to MACBAN and clarify the wrong notion of tagging our youths as militias. For the avoidance of doubt, there are no Berom Militias in our local communities or Berom-dominated local government areas of Plateau State.
“Accusing others of staging attacks on Fulani herders and their cows has been the strategy employed by the bandits and terrorists whenever they are planning attacks on our communities and their sentiments will no longer carry us away because we have since recognized their modus operandi.
“By this statement, BYD is giving MACBAN, GAFDAN, and other Fulani groups a 72-hour ultimatum to retract the labeling of Berom youths as militias or we will be prepared to prove their allegations in a competent court of law.”
Berom youths reject militia label by MACBAN, give 72-hour ultimatum for retraction
