Ethnic Nationalities Defence Organisation formed to counter thereat from Fulani cattle herdsmen

SEVERAL regional associations across Nigeria have come together to form a body known as Ethnic Nationalities Defence Organisation (Endo) with a mandate to protect their communities against attacks by Fulani cattle herdsmen.

Over recent years, Fulani herdsmen have mounted a murderous campaign against rural farming villages, allowing the livestock to run riot and destroy farmlands. When villagers complain about it, they are attacked by heavily-armed gangs of herdsmen who ransack their villages with AK47s, sometimes leaving hundreds dead after such raids.

President Muhammadu Buhari has come under intense criticism for failing to address the issue and being an ethnic Fulani himself who owns cattle, he is seen as sympathetic to the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (Macban). In response to the government inaction Endo was launched in Abuja over the weekend with a mandate to resolve protect, defend and retaliate any affront against ethnic nationalities or their territories.

Endo president David Maiyaki, said: "We have since realised that Boko Haram and Fulani militia are brothers in arms against the ethnic nationalities of Nigeria in a brazen land-grabbing and expansionist Fulani jihad. We call on all ethnic nationalities to form their defence groups or militia or be ready to lose their ancestral lands after being killed as cowards and chickens in the hands of either the compromised Nigerian Army or Fulani militia and terrorists.

“Ours is an eye for an eye and 10 for one. Let’s see, who has the monopoly of violence. Ours is non-negotiable until the evil against all ethnic nationalities by government and Fulani herdsmen militia is halted.”

Endo also warned the administration of President Buhari or any governor against taking or giving any inch of ethnic nationalities land for Fulani cattle ranches or grazing. While suggesting that Fulani herdsmen should graze in their states of origin, Endo advised that agriculture minister Audu Ogbeh, should be ready to resettle in Katsina after his tenure as minister.

“It is evident that Boko Haram and Fulani militia have not only infiltrated the government of Nigeria but government is directly or indirectly aiding and supporting daily evil perpetrated against the ethnic nationalities. Government’s rebranding of terrorist and Fulani militia as hoodlums or criminal elements does not change who truly they are.

"There is evidence of military killer squads targeting ethnic nationalities apart from the recycling of released terrorists into the Nigerian security or Fulani militia. No matter how much you give the terrorists from our sovereign wealth to arm their armoury and mercenaries, they can never take our ancestral land and each of you will pay,” Endo added.