National Security Outfit: South East Group Sends Message To Miyetti Allah On 'Joke Taken Too Far'

The Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL), the umbrella body of all the youth organizations in the southeast zone has criticised Miyetti Allah for its purported national security outfit.

COSEYL in a statement signed by Goodluck Egwu Ibem, its President-General and Kanice Igwe, Secretary-General, sent to AllNews on Tuesday said that the development "proves that the Miyetti Allah are solely claiming ownership of the security architecture of the entire nation as their personal preserve".

"The purported national security outfit proposed by the cattle trading group, Myetti Allah, is a joke taken to far, Coalition of SouthEast Youth Leaders (COSEYL) believes. How can a group that claims to be doing legitimate cattle business all of a sudden turn itself into a nationwide security outfit where more trained and equipped formations exist if not for subterfuge?" COSEYL's statement reads.

"This statement by Myetti Allah Cattle Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) deserves no attention. For a group to wake up one morning to announce that it is establishing a security oufit over the entire country is a collective insult on Nigerians given the atrocious sanguinary activities of herders under the association resulting in loss of lives and property in various parts of the country. This proves that they are solely claiming ownership of the security architecture of the entire nation as their personal preserve.

"Most of the killings and wanton destruction of properties in the country have been perpetrated by herdsmen who are members of the Myetti Allah, COSEYL can remember. What project or scheme is Miyetti Allah designing that emboldens it to believe it has a stake in national security than it should with that of a regional or geopolitical zone?

"The armed Fulani herders under the Association have left trail of sorrows and tears in our nation. Even Global Terror Index catalogued the herders as "the fourth deadliest group" in our time. How can a group with such reputation have or dare to have a stake and say in the security framework of our nation? If it were to be in a saner state such group as Miyetti Allah would have been declared an unlawful assembly, but we live in a clime where terrorists are forgiven and reintegrated into the mainstream fold and population and therefore raise this alarm, concernedly since nothing is impossible under the present federal government.

"COSEYL recalls that in times past there have been avalanche of statements released threatening the stability of our great nation by people said to be working under the cover of Miyetti Allah. One such statement was the threat on the former Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki and for which nothing was done by the government of the day. Also, pictures of guns-totting herders with high calibre rifles including Ak 47 are commonplace in the internet. It is such a shame that even after sackage, pillage and overrunning of settled spaces no arrests have been made yet and the killer herders, most of who work for the Association are at large still.

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"We are demanding the federal government under the Buhari-led administration to tell the world what interest if any, it has in the Association and their herder myrmidons to be condoning such excesses; such silence is not golden but deadly."