The National Secretary, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore Fulani Socio-Cultural Association, Saleh Alhassan, has stressed a view he expressed a few days ago that those mostly backing the Labour Party’s presidential candidate Peter Obi are supporters of the Indigenous People of Biafra.
According to him, it is natural for them to be based on the nature of Nigerian politics.
Alhassan said in an interview with ‘The Punch’: “I think this is a democratic space. Every group and individual has a right to his or her opinion. I also think that the so-called Fulani professionals or whatever they are called read the statement out of context. They should have, as is our tradition as Fulani, called me to find out what I really meant by what I said to (Sunday) PUNCH if they were really members of the Fulani community. I see them as hired goons and I don’t want to join issues with those people.
“I think my position was read out of context. If you look at the trend of the leading aspirants – take Peter Obi, for instance, who is from the South-East, his supporters are predominantly from the South-East. If you go to his social media supporters, they were hitherto the promoters of the Indigenous People of Biafra. All the Nnamdi Kanu supporters have switched to supporting Peter Obi. So, what do you make of that?
“So, it is not something that is hidden. It is all over. I am not being tribalistic or profiling a candidate. Every candidate has a support base. The support base of Rabiu Kwankwaso is basically from Kano, and the All Progressives Congress’ candidate, Bola Tinubu, will draw most of his supporters from the South-West expectedly, knowing the nature of Nigeria’s policy. I think we should be conscious of the utterances and type of campaigns some of the supporters of these aspirants are doing. Some of these presidential aspirants might end up being leaders of rebellions because of the way their supporters are behaving. The Independent National Electoral Commission has a lot of work to do.”
