Speaking on Channels TV on Thursday, Miyetti Allah’s National Secretary, Engr. Saleh Alhassan, said that those alleging Christian genocide in the country are merely seeking foreign aids.
The Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore Fulani socio-cultural association has claimed that Fulani pastoralists have been the victims of systematic and deadly attacks for 25 years, describing the situation as the only thing “close to genocide” in Nigeria.
Speaking on Channels TV on Thursday, Miyetti Allah’s National Secretary, Engr. Saleh Alhassan, said that those alleging Christian genocide in the country are merely seeking foreign aids.
Alhassan said, “If we must be honest in this country, if there is anything close to genocide in Nigeria, it’s genocide against the Fulani pastoralists in the last 25 years across the country, from Plateau to Benue to Zamfara to Kebbi State.
“Pastoralists have been deliberately targeted, killed, displaced, and some state governors even enacted laws that criminalised pastoralism.”
He said that media reporting on insecurity involving pastoralists has fuelled misunderstanding of the crisis.
According to him, ongoing narratives in sections of the media are “very unfortunate,” insisting that Fulani pastoral communities have been “repeatedly targeted, killed, displaced, and criminalised in several states.”
Alhassan maintained that Miyetti Allah supports government-led initiatives aimed at restoring peace.
“As an organisation that has been campaigning for peace, we are in support of all government efforts to ensure sustainable peace across the country,” he said.
The Miyetti Allah official criticised what he described as “genocide town criers,” whom he accused of sensationalising the crisis to attract international sympathy and funding.
He cited the example of a bishop who reportedly took accounts of violence in Benue State to the United States.
“What he is looking for is foreign aid. He failed to contextualise the actual conflict,” Alhassan alleged, questioning why local institutions were being sidestepped.
“The Senate invited organisations to present memoranda on how to solve the farmer-herder crisis. Up till now, we have not been invited by the Senate to discuss that memorandum,” he said, adding that agencies such as the National Human Rights Commission were available for engagement.
Alhassan claimed that since the U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent remarks referring to killings in Nigeria, attacks on pastoralists have intensified.
“In the last three weeks, pastoralists have been devastated in Kebbi State. They have been attacked in Niger State, in Benue State.
“It is the locals who attacked the citizens. Pastoralists were destroyed and not a single word from the security agencies, not even the media,” he said.
He further alleged, “We have attacks on pastoralists in Kebbi State; no action was taken. Attacks on pastoralists in Niger State; no action was taken. Attack on pastoralists in Benue State, Ohimini Local Government, precisely, for crimes they have not committed.”
Alhassan argued that herders are frequently blamed without evidence, saying, “If there are conflicts in Benue, you accuse the pastoralist. After investigation, you will discover that even the locals are responsible for it.”
He called on the government to adopt a comprehensive strategy that addresses all actors involved in the country’s complex security landscape.
While acknowledging that some herders may contribute to violence, he insisted that portraying them as the primary aggressors is misleading.
“Yes, we can have some of the herders involved in the conflict, but the way the conflict is being viewed as if the pastoralists are out there to kill and destroy people, that is not the truth. That is not the narrative,” he said.
Alhassan’s comments come amid heightened security challenges in several northern states, where communities continue to suffer from banditry, mass abductions, and farmer-herder clashes.
In the last two weeks alone, no fewer than 350 people have been abducted, with at least seven deaths recorded during multiple attacks.
Among the most notable incidents include mass abductions of schoolgirls and their teachers in Kebbi and Niger states, where over 300 schoolchildren and teachers were kidnapped following coordinated raids on schools.
The abduction of 38 worshippers during an attack on a Christ Apostolic Church in Eruku, Kwara State, which also left at least three dead.
An attack on a church in Kogi State, where gunmen kidnapped a pastor and his wife during Sunday service at the newly established Cherubim and Seraphim Church in Ejiba, Yagba West Local Government Area.
The kidnapping of a bride-to-be and her bridesmaids in Chacho village, Wurno LGA of Sokoto State.
The escape of the Ojibara of Bayagan in Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State, Alh. Kamilu Salami, and six others, after bandits demanded ₦150 million for the monarch’s release.
The persistent insecurity has deepened tensions across affected regions, complicating efforts to stabilize relations between farming communities and pastoralist groups.