The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN) has berated the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) for linking it to the travails of former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Obadiah Mailafia.
Mailafia has been invited three times by the Department of State Services (DSS) over some claims he made on a radio programme, including that a sitting Northern governor is the Commander of Boko Haram.
Mailafia is a native of Zangon-Kataf local government in Southern Kaduna, allthough he grew up in Nasarawa State.
Reacting to the third invitation, Jonathan Asake, SOKAPU’s president in a statementt described Mailafia’s ordeal as politically-motivated, and warned that no harm must behalf the economist-cum-politician.
He added that other prominent Nigerians and groups had made more disturbing claims than Mailafia’s but the secret police played the ostrich and did not invite them for questioning.
Asake further claimed that the leadership of Miyetti Allah had on several occasions claimed responsibility for killings and attack on communities and nothing was done to them.
However, in a statement by the National Secretary of MACBAN, Usman Baba Ngelzerma, in Kaduna State on Thursday, the group cautioned SOKAPU against tarnishing its image.
Ngelzerma said MACBAN remained a responsible organisation that would never claim responsibility for acts of criminality.
He advised SOKAPU to allow Mailafia bear his own cross rather than dragging MACBAN into the fray.
“We read with dismay a statement made by the Southern Kaduna People’s Union on the invitation by the DSS to Dr. Obadiah Mailafiya carried by an online publication, on the 14th of September, 2020 in which SOKAPU tried to draw the Miyetti Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria into the controversy surrounding his invitation.
“Among groups and individuals, SOKAPU is accusing in making reckless statements, MACBAN was mentioned as having claimed responsibility for some “deadly attacks” on communities across the country.
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“We want to make it abundantly clear that MACBAN is a responsible Association led by responsible personalities that have never and will never claim responsibility for irresponsible acts or any form of criminality.
“In the last eight years, the leadership of the association has travelled the length and breadth of this country to broker peace. SOKAPU can testify the several engagements we had with them on how to maintain peace and security in Kaduna State.
“Mailafiya made the statements knowing the implications his statements will have on peace and security in this country, having held a responsible position in government.
“It is therefore illogical for SOKAPU to drag itself into this controversy, talk less of dragging other groups and individuals unless Mailafiya was making such statements on behalf of SOKAPU. Mailafia should be allowed to bear his own cross.
“We have had enough intolerance and bloodbath in this country, it is time that elite constituting pressure groups like SOKAPU allow peace to reign and work towards an end to strife and belligerence,” MACBAN’s statement read.
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