The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), has said the people of Niger Delta will resist any attempt by “Fulani Jihadists” to create tension and perpetrate crisis in the South-South region.
Addressing a press conference on Monday in Abuja, the leader of PANDEF and Chairman, Southern and Middle Belt Leaders’ Forum (SMBLF), Chief Edwin Clark, said; “the people of Niger Delta will resist in such a way that will make it definitely impossible for the federal government security forces to cope with, should this action escalate.”
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Chief Clark, a former Minister of Information, said: “We have watched with restrained patience, the reckless and irresponsible utterances of the so-called Fulani…Miyetti Allah, who believe that they own Nigeria from the North to the sea, and therefore, have the impunity to warn the state governments, particularly the Delta State government and the governor to withdraw, within 72 hours, his decision against open grazing, recently taken by the 17 Governors of the South, in a meeting held in Asaba.
“We are reacting because this is not the first time Fulani and their collaborators have insulted our people.
“It will be remembered that sometime in 2009, a legislature from Kebbi State in the National Assembly asked the federal government to resettle the people of the Niger Delta in another territory to create a conducive and unhindered atmosphere for the oil companies to operate. That we warn, the resulting consequences will be very unpleasant to them.
“The federal government has continuously condoned them and behaving as if the federal government is the one giving support to these Fulani…and the Miyetti Allah because what is happening today in Nigeria, which has resulted in unprecedented insecurity and bad governance in Nigeria, will be worse if they are not called to order by the federal government within the shortest time possible.”
He added that “for some Fulani…to issue such insulting and provocative 72 hours’ notice to the Governor of Delta State, without the federal government and the elders of Northern extraction, ever calling them to order, is most disappointing, considering that the same Northern elders were quick to accuse Igbo leaders of not publicly condemning IPOB.
“We will no longer tolerate hate and divisive statements targeted at deriding and insulting others, from these Fulani who believe Nigeria is exclusively theirs and other Nigerians are their subjects, and not their fellow citizens.
“Mr President should regard himself as President of one Nigeria, and not as President of the Fulani or the Northerners.
“We shall resist, at all cost, any attempt to subjugate us as citizens of one Nigeria.
“We must build up a united Nigeria where all citizens are equal and have equal opportunity to aspire to any position in their God-given land without being subjugated or reduced to become subjects without any rights in their own country.”
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