There are emerging innuendos how northern leaders allegedly created bandits to force former President Goodluck Jonathan out of office, who are today terrorizing the North West Nigeria.
Report had it that the plot was hatched in April 2014, when some northern leaders purportedly consulted Miyatti Allah Cattle Breeders Association to build militia. The Miyatti Allah National Chairman was alleged to be engaged to recruit foreign mercenaries. About 2,000 Fulani fighters were said to be recruited within one month from Mali, Senegal, Niger Republic, Chad, Libya, Burkina Faso, etc. Another set of 4,000 militia were alleged to be camped in Niger and Chad for reinforcement.
One of the governors was said to have provided training camps for the foreign mercenaries.
The sponsors were said to have instructed the mercenaries: “the British handed Nigeria over to us, the Fulani, at independence. The land (Nigeria) belongs to us. We must reclaim what belongs to us.”
The mercenaries were alleged to be trained and assigned to six camps in Ekiti, Benue, Katsina, Kaduna, Zamfara and Borno states ready for battle.
Fortunately or unfortunately, there was no resistance to the loss of the 2015 election by former President Jonathan, thus, there was no more job to be done by the mercenaries.
Subsequently, the purported sponsors abandoned the mercenaries in the various camps; no food and essential supplies. The relationship between Miyatti Allah, the said governor and a later minister in the first tenure of this government was said to have been broken. The governor had declared that they were not needed anymore and should go back. The mercenaries were said to have commenced killings in the governor’s state to warn him of the danger of the broken contract.
The Mercenary at the various camps decided to go about to find food for themselves by robbing people, going into farm lands, kidnapping. Miyatti Allah leaders were alleged to make efforts to reach the governor and minister to persuade them to provide money to pay off the mercenaries and send them back to their homes but no success.
The mercenaries, therefore, abandoned their various camps. The narrator noted that the mercenaries were later branded “Bandits” by northern leaders to separate them from the Fulani Herdsmen, Boko Haram and others.
As the massive destruction and killings by the bandits intensified, Northern leaders and some officials of the federal government demanded the Miyatti Allah to intervene and remove the Bandits from Nigeria. Miyatti Allah allegedly demanded N150 billion to settle the bandits and evacuate them. The government, however, promised to offer N100 billion. Unfortunately, that didn’t solve the problem.
The ideas of RUGA and e-registration of illegal migrants in Nigeria approved President Buhari was said to be initiated to resettle the mercenaries to end their violence in the country.