More indications that Boko Haram gunmen did not kidnap over 20 young Fulani women at gunpoint have emerged.
According to SaharaReporters, the leader of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) chapter in Borno State, Alhaji Amadu Musa, on June 12, 2014, Thursday, expressed strong doubts about the incident.
* Fulani cattle breeders. Photo credit – SaharaReporters
During a press briefing in Maiduguri he tagged the media reports, which claimed that 20 Fulani women have been abducted, as untrue.
MACBAN chief confirmed that all of cattle breeders’ women were intact and safe. Responding to the question why it took a whole week to respond, he said that the association made a number of consultations in order to double-check everything and to avoid such statements which might have generated controversy.
Alhaji Amadu Musa informed that despite nomads move frequently searching for pasture, MACBAN has representatives in all the 27 local government areas in the state. After emergence of disturbing reports the organisation contacted all of them. No incidents of such kind have happened.
For example the association members paid most of attention to towns and villages near Chibok. They were also checking with cattle breeders coming back with their families and cows from the Southern part of Nigeria to the extreme Northern part of the country.
None of the members confirmed any cases of abduction in his domain. Therefore, MACBAN chief concluded that the whole furore was created by peoples’ imagination.
It would be recalled that several reports claiming that at least 20 young women from separate nomadic settlements were kidnapped by suspected Boko Haram members in Chibok Local Government Area of Borno State on June 5, 2014.
The affected villages included Bakin Kogi, Garkin Fulani and Rugar Hardo. The gunmen drove the women in several vehicles to an unknown direction via Damboa road.
However, neither the army and the police, nor the local councils have confirmed the incident.
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