The Chairman of the Northern Elders Forum, Paul Unongo, has accused former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of being the chief financier and most influential member of the apex body of Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria.
The Chairman of NEF said this on Friday in an interview with The PUNCH.
Unongo said it was time for Abubakar, a prince of the Tiv Court, to caution the herdsmen, who have been slaughtering hundreds of people in the country.
He said: “I am aware that the most powerful person in Miyetti Allah is Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who wants to be the next president.
“If they are fighting for power and Atiku wants to create problems for Buhari, I don’t know.
“There are so many possibilities.
“The most powerful person who finances the Miyetti Allah is Abubakar Atiku and he is a prince of the Tiv Court.
“The Tiv gave him a traditional title, meaning ‘the biggest shade of the Tiv people’.
“This implies that the Tiv people should be able to run to Atiku who will protect them.
“This is the man who heads Miyetti Allah and is the greatest financier of this organisation.
“He has more cattle than anybody in Miyetti Allah.
“It is an establishment of the big people, a very rich group of Nigerians and they pack small boys to take their cattle all over the place and then buy all these arms to give herdsmen to go and kill people, and the government is doing nothing!”
When The PUNCH asked Unongo if he was sure Abubakar was the most influential member of the Miyetti Allah, he said: “I know, I got my facts partially from him regarding Miyetti Allah when I used to talk to him.”
When asked if he had met with Abubakar over the issue, Unongo said: “Have you tried to see a ‘big man’ before? I don’t like to wait at people’s doors. If you’re in government, yes, but when you’re not in government, it shouldn’t be so hard to see you.
“Atiku is my younger brother and he should come to me.
“Anytime you go to his place, the people around him think you are there to collect money that they are sharing. So, I decided that I would not disgrace the NEF. I am not belittling him, but he is no longer in power and I deserve some respect.”
Unongo also berated the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government for treating the Fulani herdsmen crisis with kid gloves.
He said he had been warning the President for nearly three years about the crisis but that the President’s “insensitive” advisers had been deceiving him into thinking the matter was a small one.
The NEF chairman said that many of the President’s aides had been preventing him from seeing the President and telling him the truth about the issue.
Unongo, who is both Tiv and Fulani, said: “The President is not happy about what is happening, but his insensitive advisers have deceived him into thinking this is not a serious issue, which they keep saying they can handle, but it has now festered to a level where it is difficult to take care of.”
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