Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, on Thursday, locked horns over the travails of former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr. Obadiah Mailafia, in the hands of the Department of State Services.
MACBAN, which is the national body of the Fulani, warned SOKAPU, the umbrella body of the Southern Kaduna people not to drag them into Mailafia’s issue with the DSS following his recent radio interview.
DSS has invited Mailafia for questioning on three different occasions since his radio interview to make further clarification on his claims that a serving northern governor is one of the commanders of Boko Haram.
Mailafia, who hails from Southern Kaduna, had said he resigned as a directing staff at the prestigious National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru in Jos, Plateau State, because of the persistent attacks and killings of his kinsmen by suspected Fulani herdsmen.
SOKAPU had faulted the third DSS invitation to Mailafia, warning that nothing untoward must happen to him.
SOKAPU National President, Jonathan Asake, had said in a statement that prominent Nigerians, including the Miyetti Allah, had made disturbing disclosures in the past while the DSS overlooked it and did not invite them for questioning.
But MACBAN National Secretary, Usman Baba Ngelzerma, in a statement in Kaduna on Thursday, warned SOKAPU not to drag the Fulani people into the former CBN deputy governor’s travails.
MACBAN said it received with dismay a statement made by SOKAPU on the invitation by the DSS to Dr. Obadiah Mailafiya, in which SOKAPU tried to drag Miyetti Allah into the controversy surrounding his invitation.
The statement read in part, “We read with dismay a statement made by the Southern Kaduna People’s Union on the invitation by the DSS to Dr. Obadiah Mailafiya carried by an online publication, on the 14th of September, 2020 in which SOKAPU tried to draw the Miyetti Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria into the controversy surrounding his invitation.
“Among groups and individuals, SOKAPU is accusing in making reckless statements, MACBAN was mentioned as having claimed responsibility for some “deadly attacks” on communities across the country.
“We want to make it abundantly clear that MACBAN is a responsible Association led by responsible personalities that have never and will never claim responsibility for irresponsible acts or any form of criminality.
“In the last eight years, the leadership of the association has travelled the length and breadth of this country to broker peace. SOKAPU can testify the several engagements we had with them on how to maintain peace and security in Kaduna State.
“Mailafiya made the statements knowing the implications his statements will have on peace and security in this country, having held a responsible position in government.
“It is therefore illogical for SOKAPU to drag itself into this controversy, talk less of dragging other groups and individuals unless Mailafiya was making such statements on behalf of SOKAPU. Mailafia should be allowed to bear his own cross.
“We have had enough intolerance and bloodbath in this country, it is time that elite constituting pressure groups like SOKAPU allow peace to reign and work towards an end to strife and belligerence.”