By Baron Ike
The list of 145 global terrorist groups is now trending on the social media with Nigeria’s Fulani herdsmen, otherwise called Miyetti Allah Cattle Owners Association being named as a terrorist group.
The group is number 145 on the list, an indication that it has just been listed as one.
Contrary to expectations, the so-called Independent Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) was not among the groups posing a threat to the security of lives and property around the world.
The All Progressive Congress (APC) government of President Muhammadu Buhari last year declared IPOB a terrorist group just because the members were agitating for an independent Biafra nation.
The IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu who was being prosecuted by the government of Nigeria was declared wanted while the Nigerian Army was used to hound the members in parts of the South East where the group had made commensurate impact in its self-actualisation campaign.
But the Fulani herdsmen have been going about in the country killing people with ease and setting their houses ablaze.
The members brazenly attack farmers where ever they go to for attempting to stop them from grazing on their farms and destroying their crops.
Recently, the group was in Benue State where the members attacked and killed 73 indigenes of the state in an orgy of violence that jolted the country and the international community.
Though president Buhari had condemned the killings with the Nigerian senate ordering the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris to arrest and prosecute the master minds of the violence within 14 days, Nigerians have long asked the Federal Government to declare the group a terrorist group, but it is yet to do so.
Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State had said that members of the Miyetti Allah were behind the violence in his state and believes the group was out to cause more harm if not checked early enough.
The terrorist groups listed alongside the Fulani Herdsmen include Boko Haram, ISIS, Al-Qeada, Al-Shabab, Taliban, among others with strong hold in Africa, the United Kingdom and many parts of Asia.