Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar III has said he will never urge the Fulani to pick up arms to kill any Nigerian.

Abubakar said this on Monday while reacting to reports which quoted him as making inciting comments.

Background:

• The comments were about the recent killing of some Fulanis in Numan, Adamawa.
• Abubakar who was represented by Muhammadu Sanusi II, Emir of Kano was quoted to have said that “what happened in Numan would not go unpunished”.

What the Sultan said:

While speaking at the meeting of northern traditional rulers council alongside some southern leaders, Abubakar said, “As a Fulani leader, I am the leader of Fulanis in this country and in the West African sub-region. I live with so many people and I know their problems and I will never call on any Fulani to pick up arms to kill anybody.

“I have said it so many times at so many fora, those people picking up arms killing people are criminals and whoever you are, whether you are Igbo, Hausa or Yoruba or Fulani, you have no right to take up arms and kill anybody.

“If you see such thing happening then there must be a failure of government, but if government wakes up to their responsibility, some of these things will not happen.

“We keep on calling on everyone to please maintain peace and allow the constituted authority to take up this issues and we will continue to put pressure on them, until they continue to find solution to this dastardly act.”

He also urged the Southerners to “tell us things that you are not comfortable with, that are being done in this part of the country (Northern Nigeria), because all of you here have representatives of your various community living with us here.

“Tell us what you think we should do to make life better for everybody, as we will tell you too what to do to make life better for our people living with you because we are great family and we will continue to extend that hand of love to everybody, irrespective of tribe or religion, irrespective of political party lineage.”

Azeez