MACBAN, the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, FUNAM, and the Fulani Nationality Movement, FUNAM, have all been designated as terrorist organizations by Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom, who has called on the federal government to do the same.
Earlier this week, SaharaReporters revealed that a Federal High Court located in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, had classified the activities of organisations associated to banditry to be acts of terrorism and ordered that their activities be outlawed as well.
The court had ordered the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to publish the proscription order in the official gazette as well as two national dailies, as ordered by the court.
Ortom, who spoke on Friday in Makurdi, said the bandits who had been listed were primarily from the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, MACBAN, and FUNAM, and that as a result, they should be recognized as terrorist organizations as well.
"I want to applaud the Federal Government for taking the daring step of designating bandits as terrorists," he added in a statement. However, I urge the government to put the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, or MACBAN, and the Fulani Nationality Movement, or FUNAM, in the category of terrorists as well, because those bandits are members of those organizations."
He asked the people of the state to provide useful intelligence to security services in the battle against criminality and other types of insecurity, emphasizing that security is everyone's business and that it is everyone's responsibility.