Dangerous Trend Of Arming Miyetti Allah–Affiliated Herders In Kwara’s Forests, Warns Ejiofor

By Chuks Eke—

Social critic Sir Ifeanyi Ejiofor has condemned a recent proposal by the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) to arm herders affiliated with Miyetti Allah to participate in a joint operation in the Kwara forests.

He describes this ‘hybrid forces’ strategy against banditry as not an innovation but rather an institutional amnesia disguised as security policy.

Ejiofor further characterizes the plan as a tragic legitimization of the very entities whose ideological offspring have long ravaged farms, displaced ancestral communities, and left blood-soaked trails throughout Nigeria’s rural landscape.

In a press statement titled “When the State Arms the Fire and Calls It Firefighting: A Dangerous Romance with Terror in the Guise of Hybrid Security,” Ejiofor cautioned that this proposal represents a security experiment that must be urgently reviewed and abandoned without sentimentality.

He stated, “Across contemporary Nigeria, insecurity has metastasized into the most dominant national emergency of our time. From the North-West and North-East, through the North-Central, and spilling relentlessly into the South-East and South-West, no region has been spared.”

“Despite enormous budgetary allocations, repeated policy interventions, and the visible exertions of the Federal Government, the end still appears frustratingly distant.”

“A growing consensus, quietly shared by many Nigerians and loudly expressed by a courageous few, attributes this grim persistence not solely to capacity deficits but to active sabotage from within.”

“It is now an open secret that elements embedded within the system—including compromised security actors—profit from the chaos, benefiting from ransom economies, illegal arms flows, and displacement-driven land grabs. This corrosive internal betrayal explains why sincere efforts are routinely neutralized before they can yield results.”

“This is precisely why many Nigerians continue to urge the Commander-in-Chief to wield the big stick of authority without fear or favor, regardless of whose ox is gored. In light of this, it becomes imperative to confront one of the most enduring and destructive sources of Nigeria’s insecurity: the organized violence perpetrated by armed herdsmen operating under the Miyetti Allah umbrella.”

“For years, communities in Benue, Plateau, Southern Kaduna, Nasarawa, parts of Enugu State, and several South-West locations have endured coordinated attacks attributed to these armed groups. Farms have been forcibly seized, entire villages emptied, livelihoods annihilated, and defenseless farmers murdered in cold blood. These are not isolated incidents; they form a pattern that has been repeatedly documented, consistently denied, and tragically normalised.”

“In response to this existential threat, many affected communities, abandoned to their fate, were compelled to establish local vigilante structures to defend their lives and lands. These indigenous security formations arose not from rebellion but from necessity.”

It is both ironic and alarming that the same state that failed to protect these communities is now contemplating arming Miyetti Allah-affiliated individuals with prohibited firearms under the pretense of security collaboration.

“We must not forget that at one point, even the State Security Service found it necessary to detain a prominent leader of this organization due to his open incitement and obvious involvement in terrorist activities, a matter that eventually went to court. These are the same actors who conveniently transform in nomenclature—from killer herdsmen to bandits, and now to the newly baptized label of jihadists.”

“While the Office of the National Security Adviser is constitutionally empowered to deploy creative strategies, including arming vigilantes, what logic—legal, moral, or strategic—justifies incorporating herdsmen linked to Miyetti Allah into such operations?”

“You do not combat banditry by arming the ideological cousins of bandits. You do not extinguish fires by handing gasoline to the arsonist.”

“In Kwara State and its surroundings, there are already credible indigenous security structures in place, including Amotekun and state-backed vigilante groups, who understand the terrain, know the communities, and can identify the perpetrators. These are the forces that deserve strengthening, not groups whose antecedents inspire fear rather than confidence.”

“It bears repeating: Miyetti Allah has, over time, served as a breeding ground for armed herdsmen who graduate into bandits, kidnappers, and trans-regional criminal networks. The decision, either through omission or commission, to arm such elements with prohibited firearms under any so-called ‘hybrid forces’ arrangement is not merely baffling; it is dangerously counterintuitive.”

“One must therefore ask: Why did state authorities later arrest these armed herdsmen? Why was their arrest publicly celebrated? And if they were indeed safe partners, why the sudden withdrawal? Something is fundamentally wrong here. Nigeria must draw a clear, uncompromising red line.”

“All members of ‘Miyetti Allah’ or any affiliated structure already armed under any security arrangement must be immediately disarmed, disengaged, and excluded from all current and future security collaborations. They are not part of the solution; they represent a foundational pillar of the problem.”

“No nation defeats terrorism by outsourcing security to its ideological incubators. No state restores public confidence by blurring the line between protector and predator. And no government wins the war against banditry by legitimizing the very networks that sustain it.”

“If Nigeria is serious about reclaiming its forests, securing its farmlands, and restoring the dignity of rural communities, then this dangerous experiment must end now, before it evolves into yet another chapter of avoidable national tragedy.”

“History will be unforgiving. The people are watching. And posterity will ask who spoke when silence was safer. Stop arming terror. Disarm Miyetti Allah. No compromise on security. Protect our farms. End banditry. Security without sabotage.”