Arrested Fulani leader released without charge

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Published on Sunday, 15 July 2012 23:38

Written by elombah.com

A Fulani leader arrested last week has been unconditionally released Sunday morning without charge, elombah.com has learnt. The National Secretary of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBA), Saleh Bayeri was arrested on Thursday for the the persistent violence in Plateau State. Bayeri was arrested by the

Special Task Force (STF) when he honoured invitation from the Commander of the Force, Major General Henry Ayoola, who handed him over to the State Security Service (SSS) for interrogation.

Meanwhile, The Nigerian army said Sunday it plans to raid suspected militant hideouts in several central villages after attacks last weekend claimed by the Islamist Boko Haram sect killed over 100 people.

"We will conduct operation sweep and search this week in some villages in Plateau state we suspect are hideouts of miscreants and assailants," army spokesman Captain Salihu Mustapha said residents had been warned to leave to avoid getting caught up in any violence.

Scene of the July 7 invasion

At least 22 people, including two senior politicians, were killed last Sunday in an attack on a funeral for victims of violence on Saturday, when gunmen stormed mainly Christian villages and killed more than 80 people. Police blamed the attack on Fulani herdsmen.

Troops from the military's Special Task Force (STF) have already been deployed to several villages in Plateau state, Mustapha said.

"We are telling (residents) to evacuate the areas to avoid being caught in a crossfire when the operation begins."

The defence headquarters said in a statement on Sunday that "some of the criminals who carried out last week's attack on innocent people are still hiding around some villages in order to continue to perpetrate crimes.

"The Task Force is determined to rid the state of these murderers," it said, adding that the operation would be launched in five villages.

The STF had earlier relocated its base to Matse in Barkin Ladi, following attemps by the attackers to invade the villages they had earlier attacked penultimate weekend. 

Ethnic Fulani herdsmen are a majority Muslim group in northern Nigeria with long-standing land rights grievances against Plateau state's mainly Christian leaders.

In March 2010 they launched a wave of attacks on Birom Christian villages, slaughtering more than 500 people, according to local officials. 

Plateau state is in Nigeria's so-called "Middle Belt," where the mainly Christian south meets the majority Muslim north, and has been the site of sectarian violence in recent years.

Fulani pastoralists of Hausa-Muslim ethnicity are seen as "settlers" by the Christian ethnic groups that dominate power in Plateau state, even though the Fulani have been there for decades.

The state capital Jos and its environs have suffered a wave of sectarian and communal clashes in recent years that has left thousands of people dead.

The area has also been hit by gun and bomb attacks blamed on Boko Haram which have killed more than 1,000 people since mid-2009 in Africa's most populous nation and top oil producer.

www.elombah.com

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