Herders-Farmers Conflict: MACBAN Denied Criminal Status by Chairman Ngelzarma

National President of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, MACBAN, Baba Othman Ngelzarma, on Tuesday refuted charges that the group is a criminal organization.

Ngelzarma clarified that individuals attempting to classify MACBAN as a terrorist organization are ignorant of the group’s internal operations.

In an interview on Arise Television’s Morning Show, he highlighted that killer herders are not members of MACBAN, underlining that there are other offshoot factions of Miyetti Allah.

He said: “MACBAN does not represent any criminal activities, we are never a criminal group, we are an association that was duly registered in 1986 and was registered by General John Shagaya when he was the Minister of Internal Affairs, a Christian from Plateau State.

“His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto is the Chairman BoT of MACBAN, so we never represent any criminal activities in this country and we are never a criminal group.

“Let me make it clear that MACBAN is not the only rearing group in the country, we have a lot them, ranging to about 30 pastoralist groups that all have members, but because MACBAN is well structured and the only Democratic group of pastoralist in the country, every pastoralist identify with it and people think that all pastoralists are members of MACBAN.

Since pastoralism is the only way for the country’s pastoralists to exist, it is necessary to fully comprehend the dynamics of this dilemma before offering any solutions.

“They are not educated on how to monidenize, so they are doing this for the animal to survive.

“Whoever is trying to designate MACBAN as a criminal group does not understand anything about MACBAN. For many years, MACBAN has worked with USAID to find common ground for humanitarian conversation on how to improve production systems and alleviate crises with farmers.

“This year alone, we lost a state chairman in Kwara who was killed in his home, and we lost a chairman in Katsina who was assassinated in his home, taking away his wife and daughter. We lost about eight of our state chairmen to banditry attacks.”